


to save a life is to save the world

by MissMoonshine



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Post-Library River Song, Timey-Wimey, post s12, tea. lots and lots of tea. literally.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27117274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMoonshine/pseuds/MissMoonshine
Summary: River wants to find her wife, Romana wants to find home and Sarah Jane gets pulled into it all when she is asked to find an entire planet.
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 33
Kudos: 96





	1. Have you met my granddaughter?

**Author's Note:**

> Right. Well. This story was, originally, planned as a slightly elaborate OS that got out of hand (as per usual, why am I even surprised?). The working title I saved it under and constantly used when I talked about it was 'the timey-wimey story', which I guess, summs it pretty well. I can't really say much more because, you know, spoilers.  
> But, alas, I can tell you that because of the timey-wimey-ness of it all, I did write the entire story before posting any of it, so there will be weekly updates.
> 
> Obviously, I don't own any of the characters, they belong to the Beeb and I'm just borrowing them to play for a little while.
> 
> A big, big thank you goes out to my wonderful beta readers, BookAndCatLady and noellefray!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where River has some unexpected guests.

‘I drop you Ponds off with your daughter for the afternoon and pick you up again after dinner,’ the Doctor dutifully repeated Amy’s instructions. Both she and Rory nodded.

‘Yep. And  _ don’t  _ be late again, River’s got class in the morning, so we can’t stay over!’

‘Yes, yes, leave the nagging to the wife,’ he grinned and pulled another leaver. With a jolt, the TARDIS’ started wrooping - they’d landed. 

‘Bye, raggedy man!’ Amy called and then followed Rory outside with a smile on her face. It was nice to know that the air between them had been fully cleared and though she wasn’t exactly sure what River had known about their almost-divorce, it felt right to let her know things were fine again. She was, after all, still their daughter, even if she was currently living 3000 years in the future and was older than her parents together.

Still smiling, they rang the doorbell and waited. Nothing. Rory rang again - they were fairly certain that they had called ahead for this visit to make sure River was actually in, but perhaps the Doctor had dropped them off at the wrong day again. Just when Amy, impatient as ever, reached over to ring once more, the door flew open.

‘Yes -  _ oh. _ ’ 

‘I take it you didn’t expect us to drop by for tea?’ Rory half asked, already cursing his son-in-law for his inability to be on time. Next to him, his wife seemed to have come to the same conclusion - the look of horrified, startled delight on their daughter’s face was, after all, a dead giveaway.

‘Certainly not,’ River said, finally having got a hold of herself again. Smiling, she stepped aside to let them inside and lead them towards the kitchen. ‘I should have, really.’ She threw them a look over her shoulder and immediately began to busy herself with the kettle. ‘You said you came to see a future me, I just never thought it’d be  _ this  _ far in the future.’

‘What do you mean?’ Amy wanted to know, clearly not quite sure what to make of her daughter right then. Not that Rory blamed her, there was something different about her that he was certain hadn’t been there before. Not quite like that. Always observant and perceptive, it only took a moment before it hit him. Watching his daughter as she was preparing their tea had it dawn on him.

In all the time he had known River, she had never changed. Of course, he hadn’t actually known her all that well during their first few encounters - from his point of view, and when she actually was River, not Melody or Mels - but it felt safe to say that this River had changed tremendously. It did take Rory a moment to pinpoint what exactly it was that felt different, but when she turned to smile at them, it clicked. 

Her eyes. Every time he had seen her before, River’s eyes had been guarded, sad, desperate to hide her greatest fear - the first secret she had ever told him as River. But now that fear was gone - she must have met a Doctor who didn’t know her and worked through it with him. Whatever the reason, Rory instinctively knew that this version of his daughter was much older and wiser than any her they had met before. It was the way she moved, lighter than ever, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and there was a wisdom in her smile that he had only ever seen in the Doctor before. 

‘Well.’ River placed their mugs in front of them, pulling Rory from his musings. She glanced at him as if she had known he had just been far away, then placed a plate with biscuits between them and finally settled on her own chair before answering Amy’s question. ‘In linear fashion, that husband of mine dropped you off, what, maybe two decades late? Not too long, in the grand scheme of things.’

‘Twenty years isn’t long?’ Amy interrupted, incredulous, but River just shrugged.

‘Not when you take the greater picture into account, no.’ For a moment, she looked thoughtful, then she nodded. ‘You know time isn’t linear. My timeline certainly isn’t. The twenty something years you’re late in linear time on Luna - I’ve lived a lot longer in other places across time and space. Hundreds of years. The last twenty years here, they seem both longer and shorter.’

‘Hundreds of years?’ At that, both Amy and Rory blinked. It was one thing to know your child was a part-alien with an accelerated lifespan, but it was something completely different to hear it so nonchalantly. River nodded.

‘Yes. I’m still younger than the Doctor, but...the last time you saw me, I’ve been barely two hundred. I’m nearing a thousand now.’

‘Almost one thousand years?’ It seemed that Amy couldn’t help repeating her daughter's words, too caught in her disbelief of what she was saying. And who could blame her, it was a lot to take in and River seemed to be well aware of it because she gave her a warm smile and a nod.

‘Indeed. I told you - twenty years isn’t a terribly long time to wait for you.’

‘So...what happened? Since you last saw us,’ Rory quickly added, not quite sure if he even wanted to know. ‘If you can tell us, without, you know, Spoilers?’

At that, River chuckled. ‘Now  _ that  _ is a word I haven’t heard in a long time. Or used, mind you. Let’s see, what did happen? Mhm. You died. I died. Then the Doctor died - again, several times. Not that I’ve seen the latest him - or her, if the rumours are true, but that’s just a matter of time…’ she trailed off, that thoughtful look once more in her eyes, but while Rory didn’t even know what to address first, Amy seemed to have finally caught herself.

‘The Doctor is a woman now?’ she wanted to know with a grin. Her daughter smirked.

‘If my information is correct - which it usually is - then yes. I’ve got a wife now, marvellous, isn’t it?’ She seemed genuinely delighted about it, but then again, Rory thought, that was River for you. He had never quite understood how but gender had never mattered - not if River’s stories were to be believed. It wasn’t that he minded, but he was from the 21st century. Then again, his daughter wasn’t. Sort of. Better not think about it, that usually ended with a headache.

Still, he tried to focus on the other things River had just dropped on them. That he and Amy died didn’t seem too surprising, considering their daughter was over nine hundred years old and they were merely human - it was inevitable, really. Much more concerning, in Rory’s opinion, was her nonchalant statement that she herself had died, which made him wonder how she was sitting in front of them now. 

‘Now, tell me about yourselves,’ River smiled. ‘It’s been far too long since I’ve seen these versions of you and we never seemed to have time to properly catch up.’

‘That’s why we came by today!’ Amy agreed and then launched into an animated tale of their latest ongoings in their life. Under the table, River gave Rory’s hand a squeeze as if she knew what he was thinking and wanted to soothe his worries. In a way, it worked and in no time, he was caught up in Amy’s storytelling as well, adding bits here and there and laughing with the two most important women in his life.

‘I’m glad you’re okay again’ River said eventually as she went to refill the plate with biscuits. ‘I know it’s silly to worry about you, I  _ know  _ how your story goes, but…’ she trailed off with a shrug, for a moment looking younger than ever, perhaps a result of being face to face with her parents after centuries. By the time they had blinked, she was back to herself again, any sign of insecurity gone.

‘We are worrying about you too, you know?’ Rory reassured her gently. ‘And you shouldn’t be worrying about us.’

‘Rory’s right,’ Amy nodded, ‘You might be a thousand year old alien but you’re still our kid, so us worrying about you, that’s okay - the other way around? Not so much.’

At that, River couldn’t help but laugh, even shaking her head in amusement.

‘Alright then, mother, I’ll try not to worry about you,’ she said jokingly and both Amy and Rory gave her a satisfied nod. For a moment, River’s eyes seemed far away again and when her focus returned to them, her face, albeit still adorned with that warm smile, had sobered. ‘I know the two of you have a lot of questions. So go on. Ask away.’

Amy and Rory shared a look. What were they supposed to say, what to ask first - where to begin?

‘You said you were two hundred the last time you saw us? And you’re over nine hundred now? The seven hundred years in between - did you spend them with the Doctor?’ It was a good question, Rory thought, and one much lighter than the one that preoccupied his mind. River seemed to agree, because she shot her mother a bright smile.

‘The Doctor and I were together for a long time. Until I moved back to Luna, two decades ago, that was the last time I’ve seen him. But I know I’ll see him again. Her,’ she corrected. ‘We were together for a long time, in a very linear fashion. Not linear linear, but...linear in a not quite linear sort of way.’

‘What?’ 

‘It’s complicated, dad,’ River sighed. ‘I told you the details the last time I saw you, but that’s far in the future for you, even if it’s in the recent past for me.’

‘Right - River, what’s that?’ For a moment, Rory wondered what Amy was talking about but then he heard it as well.

A key in the lock. They frowned at each other but River seemed unconcerned. Still, her face had taken an odd expression, as if she was preparing herself for something unpleasant. 

They didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was. The front door opened and closed, there was a short shuffle in the hallway, then steps coming towards the kitchen and then the door flew open. A young woman strode in, clearly upset.

‘Grandmother, you have to - oh!’ She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the Ponds on the kitchen table, both staring back and forth between the newcomer and their daughter in shock.

‘River? Is there something you’d like to tell us?’ Amy aske, her voice shrill, but River ignored her.

‘I have to do what, Susan? What happened?’ she made no effort of hiding her worry, pushing back her chair to put an arm around Susan. But whatever was going on, Susan was clearly uncomfortable to speak about it in front of Amy and Rory, casting them sideways glances, before biting her lip and turning back to River.

‘May I, grandmother?’ she asked and River gave her a sharp nod. With practiced ease, they rested their foreheads against each other, falling silent for a moment that stretched like eternity.

When they both pulled back, a satisfied smile graced River’s lips. ‘And so it begins,’ she whispered before finally turning her attention back to her parents. She still had an arm around Susan’s shoulders and gave her a small squeeze. ‘Mum, Dad, I’m terribly sorry for all this - that idiot husband of mine has picked the worst possible day to drop you off.’

‘Or perhaps the best,’ Susan mused, shooting River a meaningful look. She just shrugged.

‘Perhaps. It all depends on your point of view. But now, let me introduce you properly, seeing that you haven’t met yet. Susan, these are Amelia and Rory Pond, my parents. Mother, Father, my youngest granddaughter: Susan.’

‘How do you do?’ Susan gave them a polite smile but neither Amy nor Rory could stop gaping at her. River used the stunned silence to get Susan situated on the chair next to hers and equipped her with a teacup of her own. Only when she, too, was seated again, Amy turned back to her daughter, eyes narrow.

‘You have a granddaughter. A  _ granddaughter. _ Or several, by the sounds of it! I’m too young to be a grandmother - let alone a great-grandmother! You can’t just spring something like that on us!’ She hesitated, frowning. ‘Can you?’

‘I’m not going to apologise for having a family, mother,’ River said, strangely calm. ‘But I am sorry that you have to find out about things this way - I was hoping to warm you up to it a little more gently. As I told you just before: I already explained certain things to you, so I can’t tell you about them now. Besides, it would be careless to let you run around with knowledge like that if you are still going to come across younger me. The things I didn’t tell you then and can’t tell you now, I’ll happily tell you the next time we meet. Perhaps you could even meet the children?’ She paused for a moment, contemplating the possibility. ‘They’re in and out all the time, it could easily be arranged…’

‘I think they’d like that,’ Susan agreed quitely, still not looking at either of her great-grandparents, rather choosing to focus on her grandmother instead. 

Eventually, it was Rory, dear, kind Rory, who carefully brought the focus to Susan and away from his daughter, who gave him a grateful smile at his question.

‘So, Susan, how old are you?’

‘217,’ she answered, ‘but I’ll be 218 next month.’

‘218.’ Rory looked at Susan. ‘Fair enough. I guess if my daughter is close to a thousand, that makes sense?’

‘It does, dad, it does. And you don’t even know half of it - if it wasn’t for Susan here, you would have never travelled with the Doctor and then I would have never even been born in the first place.’

‘Can we just go back to the bit where  _ you  _ have grandkids?’ Amy interrupted. While Rory seemed to have taken this particular revelation remarkably well, once he’d gotten over the first shock, she seemed to rather struggle with it. Her gaze was fixed on her daughter now, but River just shrugged.

‘What do you want me to say, mother? I’m an adult. I’m married, I had children, they grew up, had children. It’s life.’

‘I’m not even 30!’ Despite Rory’s calming hand on her arm, Amy couldn’t hold her protest back any longer. She understood that her daughter was half alien and lived at a different pace, a different timeline than they did, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about something like this being dumped on them. ‘Grandkids? Fine. But great-grandkids? Mum’d kill me if she knew about that!’ 

‘Well, Tabetha is not going to find out. Amy, calm down, please.’ It always worked a charm when River called her “Amy” instead of “mum”, especially in that tone, and she already hated how much it usually stung. ‘I know this isn’t easy for you - goodness, when you were standing on my doorstep earlier, I thought I was hallucinating! But you’re here, you’re really here and you can meet my family - and I will never apologise for them.’

‘We don’t want you to,’ Rory was quick to assure her, giving Amy a nudge to shut her up when he saw that she was about to say something. Once he was certain she would let him finish first, he turned back to his daughter and her granddaughter. Funny, he thought, how they looked nothing alike but when he looked at their eyes, the resemblance was uncanny. They were so old and wise, much older than human eyes, even Susan’s, who were still sparkling with the energy and curiosity only the young possessed. 

‘I -  _ we  _ \- are happy for you. Ever since you told me about the day you feared most, I worried about you.’ A shadow hushed over River’s face at the mention of that but Rory decided to leave it be for now and continue. ‘I hoped you and the Doctor would manage but I was afraid you’d be all on your own. But you’re not, you’ve got kids, a family of your own - I’m proud and happy, River. Melody.’

‘Thanks, dad,’ she said, her smile a little more teary than she’d have liked, and reached over to squeeze his hands. ‘That means a lot. And you know -’ she put an arm around Susan’s shoulders again to ground herself, ‘- that day, it was horrible. It really was the worst day of my life. I died.’ Susan snorted at that, which made River roll her eyes. Rory didn’t say anything, just watched them, but Amy next to him frowned slightly at that. He realised, with a jolt, that he had never told her about that particular conversation with their daughter, busy as they had been afterwards, running from the silence. 

‘I’m happy for you too, Melody,’ Amy finally said and all eyes snapped to her. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to avert her daughter’s gaze before continuing. ‘I didn’t mean to sound like I wasn’t, `cause I am. Happy for you, that is. It’s just, it’s a lot to take in. Which I should be used to, shouldn’t I?’

‘Mum,’ River said gently and finally, Amy looked at her. ‘I never thought I would ever see the two of you again. For me, you died centuries ago. That you are here, really and physically here, that makes up for every ill treatment you give me by tenfold. Because you’re right: I live at a different pace than you do and when our timestreams cross, it’s bound to be shocking for you - this time more than ever. And while I’m sorry that things have to be that way, I’m not sorry for any choice I made that brought me here.’

‘We understand that. And for what it’s worth, I’m kind of glad I got to know my great-granddaughter - even if she’s old enough to be my own great-grandmother.’ And there it was, that trademark Amy grin and everyone let out a breath no one had noticed they had been holding.

Now that the air had been cleared for the most part, Susan too began to partake in the conversation. She seemed to enjoy being quizzed about her life so far and was only too ready to relay the story about how she got to see the universe.

‘Grandfather took me travelling a long time ago. I wanted to try human school, grandmother had always talked about it and it sounded much more fun than the Academy. So he took me to earth and I went to school there for a bit, it was quite different - but marvellous. It’s how he met Ian and Barbara - they were the first humans to travel with him, they were my teachers. Did you manage to find them yet, grandmother?’ The last question was clearly directed at River, who nodded.

‘I didn’t actually have to do anything - it’s in that marvellous little book Sarah gave me. Which reminds me, darling, it might be better if you weren’t here when that husband of mine gets back - he can’t see you, I think at this point, he hasn’t even time locked Gallifrey yet.’

‘Oh, we wouldn’t want to mess up that timeline!’ Susan exclaimed, though she seemed rather serious. Then, she hesitated for a moment, giving her grandmother a questioning look. ‘Do you think Romana would mind if I went to see them sometime? I’d like to go now, but I probably should go and help her, don’t you think?’

‘That might be best, yes - but if you want to go now, I’ll deal with Romana for you.’

‘No, I think it can wait a little,’ Susan said decidedly and River smiled. 

‘Well, then, granddaughter, I have to ask one more favour before you go back. That note I gave you the other day? I think it’s time for you to go see to that, if you don’t mind?’

‘Of course, will do. Time-Space-Delivery-Service Susan Foreman, at your service.’ Laughing at her grandmother’s incredulous face, Susan hugged both Amy and Rory tightly before giving River a smacking kiss on the cheek. River rolled her eyes, then pulled her back down and returned the favor, leaving Susan to rush towards the door with a squeak, laughing and waving at them. It was such a natural scene, so homey and familiar, that Rory couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous of his daughter. How often had he wished that they’d have a chance to be like that with their daughter, little Melody, who had never been their little girl at all. 

Once again, River seemed to catch onto his thoughts because she gave him a gentle nudge.

‘Don’t worry dad. You’ll get a chance to do things the right way.’

He shared a look of disbelief with Amy. How, he wondered, could they possibly have that chance? Then again...who would know, if not River. She sensed their doubts, because she reached over to squeeze both their hands reassuringly.

‘You’ll be fine. Happy. You’ll be fantastic. And that  _ is  _ a promise.’

‘Thank you,’ Amy said quietly and for the first time since they arrived, the three of them sat in the companionable silence so familiar to them, just enjoying their moment of peace before their ways had to part once more.

It wasn’t long before the grinding of the TARDIS disrupted the quiet and moments later, the Doctor burst in, rambling on and on about the odd run-ins he had while they had been with River.

When they finally said their goodbye, the three Ponds all found themselves surprisingly teary.

‘Are we going to see this you again?’ Amy wanted to know but only received one of those enigmatic smiles her daughter was so famous for.

‘If you did, I wouldn’t know, now would I? I haven’t done it yet. But tell you what.’ She lowered her voice and leaned over to whisper right into Amy’s ear. ‘Bit further in the future you will meet a not far in the past me, just when you think it’s never going to happen again, and not far in the future you is going to run into a far in the past me soon.’

‘Isn’t that spoilers?’

‘I didn’t tell you when or where, did I?’ River smiled and pulled her mother into a tight hug. ‘Love you, mum.’ Then Rory. ‘Love you, dad. See you both soon.’

And then they disappeared into the TARDIS, just a little more running to do for them.


	2. The TARDIS returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Graham has tea with a journalist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do realise that it hasn't actually been a week, but I'm not sure why I thought I'd have time for mid-week updates. So here we go.  
> Enjoy!

They had been waiting for the sound of the TARDIS for weeks - months now, really, ever since the Doctor had dropped them off back in Sheffield and left to deal with the Judoon. At first, they had thought she’d be back in a tick, like she always was, a few days at most, so they waited. Then they thought she might take a little longer and slowly started to get back to their lives, however strange and difficult it was. They still thought that she would show up any day now, kept the bags packed and by the door, ready to leave again at any time. But when days turned into weeks turned into months, the bags were moved into the back of the wardrobes, so to not be a constant reminder of worry. Because worry they did.

‘She’d never leave us like this if she was alright,’ Yaz kept insisting. ‘Something must have happened and she might need our help!’ 

Ryan was all too ready to agree with her, thirsting for the universe out there they had only gotten the quick taste of, but Graham wasn’t so sure. While Yaz and Ryan were at work, he had done some research. There was a woman in Ealing, a journalist, who had been involved in too many odd things to not be somehow connected to the alien stuff. So he called her and two days later, she had knocked on his front door.

Sarah Jane Smith, journalist, had dropped quite a few rather unsubtle hints he had found very obvious but then again, to someone who didn’t know the Doctor, they wouldn’t have made any sense at all. But Graham had never been one for talking in riddles, so he had just asked her outright: ‘Do you know the Doctor? Blue box, bigger on the inside -’

‘Travels through time and space? Yes.’

‘You really know her?’

‘Her?’ At that, Ms Smith had done a double take but Graham had just nodded.

‘Yes, her. Maybe you’ve met a different Doctor?’ he suggested but Ms Smith just gave him a strange look, as if she knew something he didn’t. 

‘Oh, I met several of them.’

‘Several of them?’ Graham couldn’t help but frown at that, she was making less and less sense. But Ms Smith seemed perfectly undeterred by the look on his face as she nodded.

‘Yes, several. My first Doctor was a wonderful old gentleman, terribly fond of velvet opera capes. Then he died and my second Doctor - the one I travelled with the longest, he was all teeth and curls.’ For a moment, her gaze seemed far away, then it snapped back to Graham. ‘I met his fifth face once, and his first and second too, though they obviously didn’t know me yet. And his seventh regeneration in Hong Kong - though I’m fairly certain I am not supposed to remember that. Or the next time I met him, eighth face.’ She shrugged, ignoring Graham’s baffled look. ‘He certainly didn’t think I remembered it, I ran into his tenth face again about, oh, fifteen years ago? He just kept showing up after that - last time I met him he was all grumpy and scottish - my neighbours kept asking me if I had a new boyfriend whenever he came around.’

‘White haired Scotsman.’

‘What?’

‘That’s what she said,’ Graham said slowly, ‘the first time we met her. That she had been a white haired scotsman, not a woman. We thought she was joking, even after...you know, everything. But you’re saying she really changes her gender like that?’

‘Well, she is an alien,’ Ms Smith pointed out with a shrug. ‘But I’ve seen it happen, once, from the third to the fourth face - it makes for interesting run-ins, I can tell you, when one party doesn’t recognise the other.’

‘So you...you run into her often, then?’

‘That depends on your definition of “often”. I didn’t know the Doctor was a woman now, so not  _ that _ often. His last face though, he used to live in Bristol, stationary, and he came by regularly.’

‘So you haven’t seen the Doctor recently?’ He hoped she had, even if he didn’t really know yet what to make of Ms Smith. The only reason he had even managed to find her was because now that he knew about aliens, it was easy to spot all the strange occurrences all over England that must have been connected to them. And from there it wasn’t too hard to notice that the majority of the cover up articles had come from the same person, Sarah Jane Smith. Who was now sitting across his kitchen table, calmly sipping her tea as she shook her head.

‘No, not in a while. But I wouldn’t worry, if I were you. They do that.’

‘Do...what?’ Her gaze darkened as she fixed her eyes on his and Graham had to suppress a shudder. 

‘Abandon us. The companions, assistants - call us what you want. Some are lucky and walk away, some of us die and some of us are just abandoned, left behind somewhere more or less safe.’

‘The Doctor wouldn’t just abandon us!’ Graham repeated Yaz’s words, but even he could hear he was missing the conviction she still had. Ms Smith didn’t seem to mind, even gave him a patronising smile.

‘Yes, she would.’

‘No, she calls us her fam - she wouldn’t just -’

‘The Doctor is my best friend,’ Ms Smith interrupted, but there was nothing malicious in her voice, calm and flat as it was instead. ‘He still dumped me in Aberdeen in ‘76 instead of taking me home, South Croydon, 1980. You’re home, in the right year - don’t expect her to come back for you. You’re safe here, after all.’ 

For a moment, Graham could do nothing but stare at her. The math didn’t make sense, not to mention the harsh truth he could see in Ms Smith’s eyes, even if she had tried to break it to him as gently as possible. But it made no sense to him, he had barely been out of school in 1980 and she was younger than him. Or was she? He was fairly certain that she had been in one of those programs on the telly, though that had been a while ago. She must have been quite young when she had done that, then, he decided, which still didn’t explain why she’d want to go to 1980. He really couldn’t imagine the Doctor travelling with a child - which brought him back to the Doctor and he tried to shove thoughts about the strange remarks of Ms Smith’ past aside for now.

Safe, she had said. ‘What do you mean, safe?’ he wondered aloud.

‘You’re safe, in 2020, happily living your lives. You’re not in danger anymore, not in danger she put you in, whether she intended to or not. You’ve been returned home and as far as the Doctor is concerned, you will forever be here, waiting for her right now, happy and healthy and fine.’

In a shrewd way, what she was saying made sense even to Graham, who usually couldn’t get his head around any of the timey-wimey things the Doctor tended to say. Slowly, he nodded, but then he shook his head.

‘We don’t know what happened to the Doctor,’ he tried to explain. ‘For all we know, she is dead - as long as we don’t hear from her, we have to assume something happened to her, don’t we?’

‘I wouldn’t count on it.’ There was a callousness in her voice that made Graham shudder. Ms Smith ignored it. ‘When the Doctor dumped me in Aberdeen, all I knew was that he had been called home to Gallifrey for some reason or another. The next time I saw him again - that I should have remembered, at the time, was thirty years later. 2007. I knew there had been trouble, a war, I had no idea what had happened after the Doctor left me and had I not ran into him by chance at Deffry Vale, I would have never known. Mr O’Brien, you haven’t been travelling with the Doctor very long yet, so please remember: The Doctor is not human. They may look human but as he once told me, that is not true either. He - she - doesn’t look human, we look Time Lord.

‘Something so simple and important to us as letting us know they are fine, that isn’t something likely to cross the Doctor’s mind. It’s nothing personal. It’s just the Doctor.’ She shrugged, her eyes fixed on his once more. ‘I waited for years for the Doctor to return for me, to come back and pick me up and let me know he was fine. But he never came back, not like that, not for a long time.

‘I had put my life on hold, waiting, always ready to jump and run until it all came crashing down on me. It took me a long time to realise that I didn’t need the Doctor to enjoy life.’ Suddenly, she smiled and her hand reached over to squeeze his. ‘I know you will never be in my shoes from back then - you have already lived a life and you know you don’t need the Doctor, even if she makes you see things from a new perspective. But you’re not travelling alone, are you? You have some young friends with you?’

Graham nodded, realising with a jolt that she knew the Doctor far better than he was ever likely to. She clearly still  _ was  _ her best friend, which might be the reason she seemed to radiate some of that same energy the Doctor had, calm, reassurance and something that said ‘I know the secrets of the universe’.

‘Yes,’ he answered after a moment of contemplation. ‘It’s the three of us, my grandson Ryan and his old school mate Yaz - she’s a copper, wonderful girl. And me. She’s shown us some amazing things, the Doctor.’

‘He - she - does that,’ Ms Smith said with a smile. ‘But there are amazing things here on earth too, you just have to open your eyes and look for them.’

‘I have seen some amazing things down here,’ he agreed and her smile broadened. She really was pretty, Graham thought to himself and smiled back.

‘Mr O’Brien -’

‘Graham, please.’

‘Oh, well, then, Graham, I suppose you should call me Sarah Jane. We companions must stick together, after all.’ She frowned slightly for a moment, trying to remember what she had been saying before he interrupted her. ‘Things on earth. We have such a marvelous, wonderful planet here, please, promise me that you will not let your young friends forget that. When one is young, it is too easy to fall for the Doctor and forget we are just as wonderful ourselves.’

Graham nodded. ‘I promise you, Sarah Jane, I’ll try my best. Not sure if I can convince them to stop waiting for her to come back, but maybe I can get them to move on a bit at least? Could I...would you mind if I told them your story?’ She looked a tad uncomfortable at that, so he hastily added: ‘Only if you don’t mind, of course.’

‘I’d rather you not,’ she admitted. ‘It’s not that I think they wouldn’t understand, but it might be better if you kept meeting me to yourself for now. I have a feeling it could be important.’

‘Oh. I see.’ He didn’t, but even in the short time he’d now known her, Graham had come to trust Sarah Jane, even if he still knew nothing about her. Maybe he should google her later - but no, that was weird to just think about. 

‘I appreciate it, Graham.’ She gave him yet another of those wonderful smiles before pushing her teacup away from her. ‘I think I should get going now if I don’t want to be home too late.’

‘Of course,’ he nodded and followed her into the hallway, where he handed her her coat - burgundy velvet, eccentric and still strangely classy, he thought. With a smile, he said: ‘It was nice to meet you, Sarah Jane. Thank you for coming here and telling me about, well, everything.’

‘Don’t mention it,’ she waved him off before reaching into her bag and pulling out a card. ‘If you need anything - or just want to talk about things not from earth - give me a call. I can’t promise to respond immediately, but Mr Smith always lets me know when someone important tried to reach me.’ The look she gave him was meaningful, but he wasn’t sure what she was implying. Sensing his hesitation, she gave him another small smile. ‘Every friend of the Doctor’s is important.’

At that, Graham nodded and he watched as she fished her car keys from her purse and led her to the door.

‘It was very nice to meet you too, Graham O’Brien,’ she said at least and Graham stood on his doorstep for an eternity, looking after her car, even after it was long gone. Finally, with a shake of his head, he shook off the strange feeling still lingering from Sarah Jane’s visit and went back inside. He had to promise her to try and make ‘the kids’ see reason, and he always kept his promises.

Of course neither Ryan nor Yaz thought it prudent to listen to him, they were still trying to figure out a way to contact the Doctor and all Graham could do was listen to them patiently when they were going on about it during their weekly dinners. Five months and twelve days after the Doctor had left them, they were having another one of those when there was a commotion outside. 

  
At first, they all thought it was the neighbours, then they thought it was cats or maybe foxes, then the noise turned into a sound they all knew by heart. 

‘It’s the TARDIS!’ Ryan and Yaz were already half out of the door, rushing towards the TARDIS and Graham almost ran straight into them when they stopped dead in their tracks. It looked like a TARDIS, or at least like the Doctor’s TARDIS. Big blue box, parked neatly on Graham’s front lawn. But the woman leaning against it, she looked nothing like the Doctor.

‘Who are you?’ Yaz demanded once she’d caught herself again and Ryan added, glaring at the woman, ‘and what have you done to the Doctor?’

The woman smiled, far too innocent to not be dangerous, and pushed herself off the door, striding towards them. She held out a hand, ignoring Yaz and Ryan and focused on Graham instead.

‘I,’ she began, voice low, ‘am River Song. I’m looking for the Doctor.’


	3. Playing Messenger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Romana finds Patience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a shorty and there won't actually be any other chapter this short - but I was assured that content-wise, it works like this. But maybe there'll be a bonus chapter on Saturday?  
> I hope you enjoy this little chapter anyway :)

‘Hello, Romana.’

‘Who are you and how did you get inside my office?’ Eyes narrowed, Romana glared at the stranger in her chair. The woman seemed completely unfazed and not in the least worried about what Romana would do, as if she already knew what the outcome would be. With a smile, she leaned back.

‘I walked in,’ she answered, for now ignoring the first part of the question. ‘You gave me a key.’

‘Why, I never -’ Romana sputtered, suspiciously eyeing the key her guest was holding up to show her. Again, she seemed to have expected her reaction because she just gave a shrug.

‘Not yet. You will, though, in the future. Spoilers.’

‘Not taking into account that such criss-crossing of my own timeline would be breaking several laws -’ finally, Romana had gotten hold of herself again and strode towards her desk with the authority of the Lady President now, ‘- that still doesn’t explain who you are.’

‘Ah, yes. I haven’t introduced myself, have I?’ She stood up and held out a hand, as if for the traditional earth greeting. ‘I’m the Doctor’s wife. You can call me Patience.’

‘Patience?’ She had heard of her, of course,everyone had - the Doctor’s wife, just as odd as he had been. It was rumoured that it hadn’t been her real name but she had always been too formidable for anyone to dare try revealing it. Patience shrugged again and gave her a small, secretive smile.

‘You need a lot of it when you’re dealing with the Doctor.’

At that, Romana couldn’t hold back a stifled snort. ‘Tell me about it,’ she muttered. Finally coming to the conclusion that this woman wasn’t the threat she had originally assumed, Romana sat down on the other side of the desk. And wasn’t that odd, to look at Patience in her usual seat, from the wrong side? She nodded at her.

‘I doubt this is a social call, is it? Surely, you’re here for a reason?’

‘I am indeed.’ Patience nodded and her curls bounced up and down. Maybe she should try go for curls like that the next time she regenerated, Romana thought and made a mental note of it in the back of her mind before turning her focus back to the woman in front of her.

‘Considering this is your planet to rule right now,’ she began, ‘there is something you should know. The Time War might be over, but the fighting isn’t. Not only are there still Daleks out there that would like to see Gallifrey burn, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that there are more than a few time lords who don’t like seeing you reinstated in office. 

‘I have a warning for you, Romanadvoratrelundar. Soon, when the seasons are about to change again, destruction will be heading for Gallifrey. It won’t take the form of an enemy or an old foe but have the face of our own. The destruction he will carry will be...absolute. There won’t be anything left on Gallifrey that won’t be destroyed and the casualties will be worse than during the last war. 

‘That’s why I came here today. To warn you. Warn your people, evacuate Gallifrey, save them. I can’t help you with it, not now, not here - but I promise to be there when the time has come.’


	4. The ghost in the Matrix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Romana makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another slightly shorter one, sort of part 2 of the last chapter. Don't worry, the rest of the chapters will be longer :)

‘Is it just me,’ Romana wanted to know and turned from the window to look at her assistant, ‘or is there something in the Matrix that shouldn’t be there?’

‘I’m not sure what you mean, Lady Romana?’

Realising that the young man couldn’t feel the anomaly she had detected, she shook her head and waved him off. ‘Never you mind.’ Hesitating for a moment, she reached for a stack of papers on her desk and handed them to him. ‘Drop these off with the Council administration, will you? And then go home, I won’t need your assistance anymore today.’

‘Of course, Lady Romana.’

Once he had slipped out of the room, Romana sunk into her chair and rubbed her temples. Being President had never been an easy task, but now that she was back in office, after the Time War and Rassilon, it was worse than ever. It wasn’t even that half her people didn’t trust her, associating her with the Doctor still after all these years, nevermind that it had been three regenerations since she had last seen him - more for him, or her, if the rumours were true. It wasn’t the rebuilding of state and country, now that the war was over and peace was reigning again. But dealing with a sceptic council and completing the day to day work of the President on top of those additional tasks, that was draining. 

And there was one other matter that she hadn’t dared broach to the council yet, a matter so grave that she wasn’t sure she herself believed it yet. 

But for now, she would focus on the more immediate problem, the anomaly in the matrix. Because there was something there, something - someone, perhaps - that shouldn’t be there. Focusing her thoughts on it, Romana closed her eyes and let herself slip into the surface layers of the matrix.

  
Around her, memories and thoughts were whirling, but her attention was immediately drawn to what was undoubtedly the anomaly. Romana gasped and the shadow whipped around.

‘It’s  _ you, _ ’ she whispered, eyes wide. So she hadn’t been mistaken. But this wasn’t possible, it was, in fact, completely impossible. And yet, right there in front of her stood a woman she had only met once and still would never forget. She was shimmering and out of focus, as if her body, the corporal form, was a fading memory she was desperately trying but failing to retain. Her face was blank as she stared at Romana without recognition.

‘Me? Who is  _ me _ ? Who are  _ you _ ?’ She wanted to know and even though she didn’t see her lips move, Romana heard her words. Carefully, she moved closer - it was all about thought in the Matrix, walking was such a physical thing to do.

‘I’m President Romana of Gallifrey,’ she introduced herself, then smiled. ‘And you’re Patience.’

The woman frowned and shook her head. ‘No, I’m not.’

‘Yes, you are,’ Romana insisted. ‘I’ve met you before. You’re the Doctor’s wife.’

At that, she smiled. ‘That’s more like it, me. The woman who married the Doctor.’ For a moment, she looked thoughtful. ‘I can’t remember having met you before, Lady Romana. One would think I’d remember you - it’s all coming back now, living, dying - but no, we've certainly not met before.’

Now, it was Romana’s turn to frown. ‘But you didn’t die. You just up and disappeared one day and no one knew what happened or where you’d gone to. And we met - just a few weeks back!’

The woman shrugged. ‘Maybe it hasn’t happened for me yet. You know, timey wimey? But I died, so I’m not sure how that’d work…’

‘If you were dead, you wouldn’t be here and talking to me,’ Romana pointed out, which made the woman’s frown deepen.

‘Well, where exactly is  _ here _ , then?’

‘The Matrix, of course.’ How could the Doctor’s wife possibly have ended up in the Matrix without knowing it? From what Romana had heard of her, she was more than formidable but judging by the look of disbelief on her face, she wasn’t quite so sure anymore.

‘The Matrix. As in, the Matrix on Gallifrey?’

‘I wasn’t aware that there’s another one somewhere else.’

‘Oh, this is brilliant!’ A delighted grin spread across her face. ‘I should have recognised it, I’ve been stuck in here before - but really, it was quite different then - I was different. I still had a body, you know?’

‘And you don’t have one now?’ How odd. The Patience Romana had met had been thrumming with regeneration energy.

‘No. Used all the energy I had left to save that husband of mine.’ She said it so nonchalantly, like it was an everyday occurrence, but Romana’s eyes widened.

‘You gave your regenerations up to save the Doctor?’

‘Yes. The ones I had left, anyway. I always thought…no, nevermind.’ There was a look on her face Romana couldn’t pin down, especially not now that she had turned away, the wild curls obscuring her face. 

‘You thought what?’ She inquired gently.

‘I thought that after regenerating so many times when I was young, I’d know how to control it, how much to give him and still keep some. But I couldn’t, I gave it all. And I never once regretted it,’ she added when she saw Romana’s horrified stare. But that wasn’t the part that worried Romana, giving regeneration energy to your spouse wasn’t common practice, but it wasn’t unheard of either.

No, she had picked up on what Patience - for the lack of another name - had not said. She regenerated when she was young. Timelords weren’t considered adults until they were about 100 years old. Even though there seemed to be something different about Patience’s physiology, something that made her able to sustain herself inside the Matrix without a physical body nearby to ground her, she didn’t feel that old. Perhaps around 300. Still rather young. So young, that when she referred to herself as “young”, she was talking about being a child. 

There were many crimes on Gallifrey but one of the few things that were considered cruel above others was to force a child into regeneration. Exceptions were made, of course, in cases of the rare incurable illness or an accident, but those were one-in-a-million cases. What Patience was insinuating, however, would have been severely punished by gallifreyan law.

‘May I-’ She hesitated, paused for a moment. ‘May I have a look at your memories? I might be able to help.’

There was no voiced consent, just one single nod and suddenly she opened herself to Romana. The memories flodded her and for a moment, she thought she was drowning. Then, she found a timestrand to hang on to and followed it, back to the very beginning. 

A humming TARDIS, all too familiar, the Doctor’s TARDIS. A lonely child in a big house, training to kill and being punished with death for failure. A space suit, being shot, dying again. Finally having the chance to grow up, on the eight body already. Perhaps more, everything was so fuzzy. The TARDIS again, like coming home. Hitler. Dying again. Regeneration, killing the Doctor. Saving him. Studies, travel. Killing and not killing the Doctor. A wedding. Life, back and forth, never linear. Adventures. Darillium, a reprieve. Then, the library. Dying again, for the Doctor, for good this time. Only, no. It wasn’t death. A data core in the library, being stuck there. The library destroyed and then - nothing. Until suddenly - the Matrix. And finally, a name. Melody Pond. River Song. The woman who killed the Doctor, the woman who married him.

No wonder River didn’t know how she had come to be in the Matrix. There was nothing in between the destruction of the library and her arrival - one moment she was there, the next she was here. But that was a mystery for another day. Respectfully, Romana took a step back. This woman was younger than she was by now, yet the things she had seen and done - they weren’t even close to the things she had experienced and she felt oddly honoured that River had allowed her to have that glimpse at her life. 

But there were so many things still missing and Romana gave her a wide smile.

‘River Song,’ she said solemnly, ‘your life isn’t over yet. In fact, your life has barely even begun. I, Romanadvoratrelundar, Lady President of Gallifrey, hereby declare that for the crimes committed against you when you were a child, a new body shall be loomed for you and you will be giving another chance to live your life however you see fit, as an honorary Time Lady with a full set of regenerations.’

All around them, the Matrix started humming like a bee hive in agreement of her declaration. Everything River had shared with Romana, the Matrix had seen them too and she was oddly relieved that it seemed to support her decision. River was just staring at her in disbelief.

‘But I’m not even a proper Time Lord!’ She protested meekly, incredulous. ‘Or Gallifreyan for that matter.’

Romana shrugged. ‘You’re the child of TARDIS, I think that makes you more a child of the vortex than any Time Lord. So if anyone should be a time lord - lady, it’s you. It’s just a title anyway, one you usually get when you graduate from the academy. I think you have seen enough of time and space to not need to go through school again - therefore, honorary time lady. And the gallifreyan bit,’ she waved her hands nonchalantly, ‘you’re close enough. No one will notice. Now, I need to go prepare that loom for you. Can you stay here for a little longer?’

River nodded slowly and it was visible that she still didn’t quite believe and of what Romana had said real. But she smiled back when Romana beamed at her and even waved her goodbye. Assured that she was safe and taken care of for now, not to be shredded but rather cradled by the Matrix (and what an odd notion that was!) Romana pulled her mind back into her body and opened her eyes.

A satisfied smile graced her lips as she pushed herself from her chair. She had work to do.


	5. Meet: The Lady President

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the fam meets some old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back again. This one is back to normal length and I hope you enjow it :)  
> Thank you for all your reading!

River, it turned out, knew exactly who Ryan, Yaz and Graham were. Her explanation of how that had come to be was futile at best, but it was impossible to get anything else out of her. She had, however, assured them that no, she wasn’t the Master, and yes, the TARDIS was indeed the Doctor’s and she liked River very much indeed. That had been enough to convince them that she wasn’t one of the bad guys. 

‘I’ve been trying to find the Doctor for some time now,’ River explained once they were all settled in the Tardis kitchen with Tea. No custard creams, digestives instead. Thank goodness.

‘How did you even get inside the TARDIS?’ Yaz wondered, frowning at River. ‘The Doctor said no one can get in - and she’s the only one who can fly her anyway.’

Ryan snorted. ‘Sometimes.’

‘Oi! That’s the Doc you’re talking about!’

‘Oh, but he’s right, Yaz. In her two thousand years, she still hasn’t learned to pilot a TARDIS properly. But I can - she taught me. The TARDIS, that is, not the Doctor. Came in quite handy when I had to take the driver’s test on Gallifrey - I still wonder how she passed that, though Romana did mention she - well, he, then - barely scraped by.’ River shrugged and set to continue, but Ryan interrupted her.

‘But the Doc said that Gallifrey was destroyed - we’ve been there, we saw it, everything burned. If no one survived, then how can you be here?’ he wanted to know and Graham sent his grandson a proud smile. All very good and very valid questions. River seemed to agree as well, because she nodded, trying to think how to best explain.

‘If you were on, say, the moon, or sometime else, and someone came to destroy the earth in the now. You would not be affected yourselves, wouldn’t you? Because you’re far away and out of harm’s reach.’ They nodded and she gave another shrug. ‘It’s simple as that. Well, it’s actually a little more complicated, but as far as explanations go, that’s what’s most relevant for you.’

‘Was there anyone else off planet?’ Everyone turned to Graham now and from the looks of it, the question wasn’t one either Yaz or Ryan had even considered. River, on the other hand, gave a small nod.

‘There was. Which neither the Master nor the Doctor know, though it is imperative that the latter does - which is why Romana sent me here.’

‘So, what can we do to help you find the Doctor?’

‘That’s what I don’t know yet. But first, why don’t you tell me what exactly happened before she dumped you here?’

So that’s what they did, with the TARDIS parked in the vortex over tea and biscuits, recalling their last adventure with the Doctor before she disappeared and left them behind. 

‘Oh, and then there were these giant space rhinos again!’ Ryan added all of a sudden when they were almost done with their tale. They had only mentioned them in passing before, but Ryan couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were a lot more important. River seemed to agree, because suddenly, all her attention was focused on him. 

‘Space rhinos? You mean the Judoon?’ she wanted to know, and they all nodded. 

‘That’s what the Doc called them, yes. Why? Is that important?’

‘Yes, Yaz, it is.’ River stood up, dumped her mug in the sink and headed towards the control room, the fam hot on her heels, albeit slightly confused.

‘Do you know where the Doc is, then? With those Judoon things?’ Bless Graham, always asking the relevant questions. River shook her head in answer to that, then nodded before turning to them with a frown.

‘I have a suspicion where she is and when, and I think I know how to get her out without staging a prison break.’

‘Yeah, that might be a bit difficult.’ That must be the police officer in Yaz speaking, but River just waved her off.

‘Oh, I got plenty of experience breaking in and out of prison - but usually it’s just myself, not someone else, and if she’s in the Judoon wing of Stormcage, it might be better if they don’t see me there.’ She turned to them with an innocuous smile. ‘They already had to rebuild an entire wing last time I paid it a visit. Luckily for us -’ flip a lever, turn two dials, push a button, flip another lever, much more coordinated than the Doctor, ‘- I got marital rights and Romana’s help.’

Whoever this Romana was, Yaz thought, she must be very influential, considering how often River had mentioned her in the brief time they’d known her. She was so focused on contemplating that, the other part of what she had said completely slipped past her until Graham pointed it out again, carefully eyeing River.

‘Did you just say marital rights?’

‘Yes, I did, why? Oh, don’t tell me she never mentioned me,’ she groaned once she saw the puzzled looks on their faces. She rolled her eyes. ‘She really needs to stop doing that, she always forgets to mention me to her new assistants. I take it she never talked about me?’

They all shook their heads and after a moment of awkward silence, it was Graham who gently answered. ‘We asked her if she had anyone, but she said her family was gone.’ He shrugged awkwardly. ‘We just assumed she meant dead.’

‘Yes, well, of course she thinks that, she’s not yet meant to know better. I did die, by the way. Got uploaded into a library - long story.’

‘But you’re alive now.’

‘Well, obviously. But I wasn’t always and I’m much older than when the Doctor last saw me. Ran into my own parents again the other day, hadn’t seen them since, oh, heaven, well before I died. Not that it matters now, we need to get the Doctor out of prison first, everything else can wait. Come on, spit spot, don’t dawdle.’ And she strode out of the TARDIS, leaving a very perplexed fam behind.

‘I guess we follow her?’ It wasn’t really a question and with a shrug, the three of them followed her outside. 

It still seemed to be England, 21st century too, by the look of the cars on the street. They were parked in someone’s drive this time, in front of a rather big, slightly posh house and next to a pale green car. River was already at the door, pushing it open to let herself in. They hurried after her, looking around curiously.

‘’s this your house?’ Ryan wanted to know and River let out a small laugh. 

‘Certainly not. I live on the moon.’

‘Right. Of course you do.’

‘River! You’re back! Ohhh, are those our latest replacements?’

‘Yes. They are,’ River answered with a grin and stepped aside so they could enter the parlour. It was occupied by two women, both impossible to judge age wise - they could have been any age between 30 and 65 and no one would be able to claim they were lying.

‘Ms Smith?’ Everyone’s eyes snapped to Graham as he stared at the woman sitting in the armchair, a notepad on her knees. She smiled and River gave a satisfied nod.

‘Ah yes, you two have already met, wonderful. Since you already know Graham, these are Ryan and Yaz - darlings, this is Sarah Jane Smith. This is her house, and currently our base.’

‘Right. Granddad, you have some explaining to do later.’ Ryan had only whispered the last part loud enough for Graham to hear but couldn’t help eying Sarah Jane cautiously. River, on the other hand, had already stepped towards the other woman, the one who had greeted her just before. She gave all of them a quick once-over now, then muttered something that made both River and Sarah Jane snort in amusement. Before anyone could ask about it, though, River nodded at them.

‘Now, Ryan, Yaz, Graham, may I introduce you to Romanadvoratrelundar, Lady President of Gallifrey.’ 

They all stared at her, the woman with the unpronounceable name (for earth standards, that is). It was one thing to hear the Doctor talk about Gallifreyan costumes but it was a wholly different thing to suddenly stand in front of their leader. Who didn’t seem to be all that much older than Yaz - but then again, so did the Doctor and she had repeatedly said she was over two thousand. 

The woman grinned at them. ‘Call me Romana.’

They silently stared at her and for a moment, she eyed them thoughtfully before shrugging. ‘Or Fred. I always liked Fred.’

It was clear from the looks on their faces that Sarah Jane, River and Romana were waiting for Ryan, Yaz and Graham to react, but they were just staring at them wide eyed, obviously uncertain what to make of the entire situation. Eventually, it was Yaz who put in words what all three of them had been thinking.

‘But...the Doctor said everyone on Gallifrey died.’ Her eyes darted to River, remembering what she had explained earlier about there being some survivors. ‘I thought, well, I guess I thought that you meant there had been a few travellers who were off planet, not the President.’

Romana waved her off. ‘We received ample warning that destruction was heading for Gallifrey. It was a simple matter of ensuring that people were evacuated.’ Her gaze darkened. ‘Many wouldn’t listen, didn’t believe there could be such danger looming over us when we had just finished rebuilding after the last Time War.’

‘Gallifrey was time locked,’ River explained when she saw their confusion. Not that they could make much sense of that, but they decided to just nod along for now. When Romana flopped herself down into the armchair she had occupied before their arrival and River made herself comfortable in another one, they all took the cue and settled on the sofa, waiting for instruction or information or whatever was going to happen next. 

If they were being honest, all three of them felt a little inadequate. Sarah Jane clearly knew what was going on and what she could do about it, if her hushed conversation with Romana was any indication. Romana herself was President of Gallifrey, need they say more? And River, well. Neither of them was quite sure yet what to make of her, but for now, she seemed the most approachable of the three of them. She watched them settle down, then gave them a warm smile.

‘Perhaps you are wondering what we are all doing here, at Sarah’s house,’ she began and they nodded. River sighed deeply. ‘You were right earlier. Gallifrey has been destroyed and has become inhabitable. But there are refugees, stranded in TARDISes currently parked on the moon - working chameleon circuits, so they are safe there for now. But we can’t leave them there forever, so we are currently trying to find an uninhabited planet for the Gallifreyan people to settle at.’

‘Mr Smith has found several options,’ Sarah Jane interrupted - apparently, both she and Romana had been listening to their conversation as well.

‘Mr Smith?’ Ryan asked, curiously. ‘Your husband?’

‘Goodness, no!’ She shook her head. ‘Mr Smith is my computer.’

‘Your computer has a name?’

‘Nevermind that Yaz, her computer can detect empty planets!’ Clearly, Ryan was intrigued by the prospect and Sarah Jane didn’t seem to mind, for she gave him a smile.

‘He can - mind you, he’s not your typical everyday computer. He’s a xylok,’ she explained and River and Romana shared an exasperated look.

‘An alien computer and a robot dog - I’m still not over that, Sarah.’

‘Oi, don’t you say anything about K-9, you’ve got a K-9 too!’ All three of them snickered at that and only when Sarah Jane saw their baffled looks, she tried to control herself again. ‘K-9 is my dog,’ she explained. ‘He was a gift from the Doctor.’

‘Yes, and he’s not even in the country - can you two shut up or should we move to the kitchen?’

‘We’ll behave,’ Romana said, mock glaring at River, who narrowed her eyes at her and Sarah, both of them clearly still amused but now serious again.

‘Right, where were we?’

‘Looking for planets,’ Graham noted helpfully and River nodded.

‘Yes, of course. We are currently trying to find a planet of the right size and at least one sun at the right distance.’

‘Doesn’t there need to be, you know, the right atmosphere too?’

‘Good thinking, Yaz, but no. We do have time machines, we can just nip forward and get a terraforming device to take care of that. It’d be helpful to already have a breathable atmosphere, of course, but it’s not immediately necessary. But what is much more important is the people who are the refugees.’

‘Gallifrey was very corrupt,’ interrupted Romana and River seemed happy to leave the floor to her. ‘I was President before the last Time War, then I had to flee the planet because the council decided to resurrect Rassilon. The war didn’t go well.’ Here, she glanced at River, who seemed much paler than moments before, and gently squeezed her hand. ‘I was in a parallel universe for most of it, but once the Doctor removed the time lock and Gallifrey wasn’t hidden in a pocket universe anymore, once Rassilon was dealt with, a few trusted people came to find me.

‘But not everyone agreed I should have been made President again, some were actively conspiring against me.’ Here, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before soldering on. ‘When I got the warning that Gallifrey was about to burn again, not everyone believed me. Many thought it was just a ruse, some sort of putsch to verify my power, or to put someone else in place.

‘What’s left of Gallifrey is a fraction of the people who used to live there. Half the capital refused to evacuate. Most of Arcadia stayed too. Some because they didn’t think it was necessary, some because they didn’t want it to be true and refused to believe, some for political reasons - it doesn’t matter. Some of the smaller cities, almost the entire population from the countryside did listen. Some families, they thought they could weather the danger to come but send their children away. It was all very hush hush. More than half the children we have evacuated are orphans now.

‘And those who listened and left, many of them didn’t believe me either, they followed because they trusted me. But in the hustle to get people off planet and out of danger, there was no time to plan ahead for what would come after.’ Romana swallowed. ‘Less than two billion people followed me and survived. More than half of them are children - or what we consider children on Gallifrey - and the adults are in shock. Right now, all we can do is find us a safe place to recuperate. If there was ever a time I needed to be the President trusted by her people, it is now. And I need the Doctor’s help.’


	6. My enemy's enemy, my friend's friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where old friends make new friends.

Someone was knocking on the door. Rather impatient- and persistently.

‘I’m coming!’ River called and pushed her chair back. Was it too much to ask for one afternoon of peace to prepare for her next dig? But even before she opened the door, she knew who had been knocking and couldn’t hold back a smile. ‘Romanadvoratrelundar. You better come in.’

The woman in question just looked at her for a moment before stepping past her without hesitation. Wordlessly, she followed River into the kitchen, taking in everything in the room without saying a word. Only when a cup of hot, steaming tea was placed in front of her did she finally turn to look at her host.

‘You were right,’ she said softly. ‘The Master destroyed Gallifrey.’

‘I know.’

‘How?’

River shrugged, staring at her tea. ‘I saw it. I was in the Matrix for a long time, you know? And before that, I was part of the biggest library in the universe, every book ever written. It helped that I’m the child of a TARDIS too, I suppose.’ She sipped her tea and grimaced. ‘Too hot,’ she mouthed and a tiny smile tugged on Romana’s lips. But it was gone as soon as it appeared and River continued without commenting on it. 

‘When I was in there...it’s different for me, in a way, than it is for you, when I’m in the Matrix. The first time I was in there, I still had a body, but the second time, it was just my conscience. My mind.’ She gave another shrug. ‘I’ve always been more human than Time Lord, but I’ve also been less human than I was something else entirely. The TARDIS part, it made some things easier to access. Things like tapping into the knowledge of another TARDIS and somehow, I found the one that belongs to the Master. I saw what he was going to do and acted accordingly.’

For a moment, Romana silently stared at River, her eyes serious. Then, very slowly, she nodded.

‘I see why you are called Patience. You could have gone back to tell me about the Master’s plan right after your conscience was placed in your body. But you waited, you lived an entire life on Gallifrey, you were there for centuries and only when you came back here did you come back to warn me.’ She paused, hesitated. ‘Why?’

‘Susan.’ Not really an explanation, but River held up a hand to ward off Romana’s impatient questions for a moment before she slowly continued. ‘I didn’t know who she was back then, but right before you came to fetch me, she arrived with a letter - a note, really. It was a warning: I couldn’t postpone the procedures because of the precise calculations that had gone into their preparations, but once I arrived, the temporal flux around the Doctor’s past would make it impossible to come back until the day he left Gallifrey with her.’

Romana nodded thoughtfully. ‘That makes sense. Your timestreams are so intertwined that it would have been impossible to pin down to which point to return to, unless you used the Doctor’s TARDIS, which you couldn’t because that would have led to an even greater paradox.’ She frowned. ‘Then how did you know when to warn me?’

‘Didn’t you listen? Susan told me.’

‘You said she brought you a warning to not destroy your entire timeline.’

‘Well, who do you think sent her there?’ There was a satisfied smile on River’s face and Romana’s eyes widened at the implication.

‘You sent her into your own past and used that as a reference for when to warn me?’

‘Precisely. I knew I liked you.’

‘You and the Doctor.’ Romana shook her head in disbelief. ‘You two really play with time like children in a sandbox, don’t you?’

River shrugged nonchalantly and looked perfectly nonplussed by the accusation. ‘I suppose we do, yes. You helped a lot - I don’t think I ever thanked you properly for what you did for me that day.’ Romana just waved her off, not relevant right now. ‘Before our life on Gallifrey, our timelines went in opposite directions - well, not completely, but for the most part. But you already know that, because you saw it. It can’t be helped, now can it, that we made such a mess of things - one slip and everything could have fallen apart.’

‘But it didn’t.’

‘No, it didn’t. Because we -  _ I - _ took the necessary precautions.’

‘He couldn’t know, River. He couldn’t know because he hadn’t known, so you had to do the only thing you could have done. Taking all those memories, obscuring them without removing them, there aren’t a lot of people who would have known how to do it.’

‘That doesn’t mean it’s something I’m proud of, Romana.’

‘No, I suppose it doesn’t. But knowing you, you left a loophole, didn’t you?’

‘Of course I did.’ A genuine, warm smile spread on River’s lips as she looked at her opposite. ‘Eventually, the loops would close and we’d reach the parallel point. It’s not long now, I think - I have a feeling we’ll run into each other again soon.’

‘Are you going to tell him then?’

‘I think he’s finally regenerated into a woman now.’ 

‘Oh!’ Romana grinned, looking quite delighted at that prospect. ‘It’s about time, how many regenerations has it been now?’

‘I think it’s Thirteen now - you’re on what? Five?’

‘Four. You too, right? Or is it the first - I don’t even know how to count in your case.’

‘I’ve given up trying,’ River said loftily, though from the look in her eyes it wasn’t something she liked to discuss very much. Romana let it go. It was time to return to the subject that brought her here in the first place. 

‘Gallifrey is gone. Our home is  _ gone. _ For good, this time,’ she added and River nodded solemnly. ‘So many died, River,  _ so many.  _ Because they were too stubborn and self-absorbed to listen but even if they were giving me a hard time being their leader, they were still my people.  _ And I couldn’t save them. _ ’

‘Romana.’ Cool hands wrapped around hers. ‘Listen to me. It is not, has never been, and will never be your fault that Gallifrey was destroyed. I watched it, I saw all you did and tried to do and there was nothing else you could have done. I know it is hard, it is terrible that our home, an entire, beautiful planet, is gone. But we’re not alone, we have each other and those people who listened and followed your orders. It won’t be easy, but we will get everyone through this. And that,’ River squeezed her hands, ‘I have on good authority.’

‘What?’ Romana’s head snapped up. ‘Whose?’

‘Mine.’

‘What? How - you sent yourself another note?’ Instead of an answer, River stood up to grab a note from the board by the door, gave it a quick glance before pushing it over to Romana. The Gallifreyan on it was very neat, just like the one on all the other notes on the board. The same handwriting, all written by the same person.

It didn’t say much, Romana thought, half of it was a set of coordinates somewhere on earth in the 21st century. But the important bit, the part that made tears well up in her eyes, was the other half. Simple, reassuring words, no details, no spoilers. She blinked, handed the note back to River. 

‘Thank you.’

‘Of course.’

For Time Lords, especially of their age, losing track of time was an unheard of concept. Their perception of time was part of their very being, ingrained deeply in their DNA, yet neither of them could tell how long they had been sitting there, staring at their cold tea in silence. Eventually, Romana broke the silence with a question even River didn’t have the answer to.

‘Where do those coordinates lead?’

‘I haven’t the foggiest. Let’s go find out, shall we?’

  
  


Romana’s TARDIS landed quietly - unlike some people, she had paid attention in class, thank you very much - in the driveway of a quaint, british house. 

‘Earth, 2020,’ River nodded and pushed the doors open. She strode outside and Romana walked right into her because barely two steps before the door, River had stopped dead. Hating not knowing, Romana had to peek around her to see what had caused her to halt and found herself staring at another woman, pretty, maybe around fifty, who was staring at River with unabashed surprise.

‘I’m very sorry for parking on your property,’ Romana began, stepping around River towards the woman, but strangely enough, her eyes were still fixated on River.

‘You died,’ she finally said, very slowly. ‘The Doctor said you died and I’d never see you again. But you...you’re older. Much older. But you haven’t changed.’

‘Neither have you.’ It was eerie how out of place she felt, Romana thought. Clearly, there was a story here, history between River and this other woman, but she had no idea what it was, except that from the stranger’s words, it had something to do with the Doctor. Which could mean a lot of things. 

‘You haven’t aged. You should have aged. This is 2020 - you should  _ look  _ older.’

‘And you should be dead, so I guess we’re both rubbish at doing things we should,’ the woman said and Romana couldn’t decide whether it was sarcasm or just resigned honesty in her voice. At least her words had put a smile on River's face and she finally returned her attention to Romana.

'Romana, may I introduce you to my husband's best friend, who happens to be a good friend of myself as well? This-' she put an arm around the woman's shoulders '- is Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah, I'm sure you've heard of Romana.'

'Of course.' Sarah Jane smiled and held out a hand to Romana, who took it, dazed. Sarah Jane Smith. Who else would they go to for help on earth? If Romana wasn't mistaken, and she rarely was, then Ms Smith was mentioned in several tour guides for earth as someone to turn to for help and out of whose path to stay if you came looking for trouble. She was one of the Protectors of Earth, one of the Doctor's 'Children of Time' and if the stories were true, she had a whole cult devoted to her for the last five centuries. It made sense that River knew her - she was, after all, her husband’s best friend. It also explained her earlier confusion because frankly, Romana was confused too. Unless earth science had evolved enormously since she last checked, Ms Smith should be almost seventy, probably older considering she used to be a time traveller. But she stood by her earlier assessment, Ms Smith appeared to be in her mid fifties at most - though was that a perception filter on her ring finger? 

Apparently, Romana scanning her hadn't been as subtle as she had thought because Sarah Jane followed her gaze and held up her hand so she could have a proper look at the ring.

'I figured it would be easier to just pretend to be aging with this rather than go get my hair dyed grey every other week.' She shrugged. 'It's been working well so far.'

'I don't think that's a matter to be discussed on the street,' River interrupted and glanced at Sarah. 'Do you mind if we come in?'

'Oh, silly me, of course, come on! And do make yourselves useful, help me with the shopping?' Sarah nodded at the bags in the boot and both River and Romana sauntered over to take one. Between the three of them, they managed to get everything inside in one go and in no time, they found themselves seated around the kitchen table, each yet another cup of tea in front of them.

'I've not seen much of Gallifrey when I was there,' Sarah said softly once the other two had brought her up to speed about what had happened to have them appear on her doorstep in the first place. 'It wasn't a pleasant experience but I still would have never wished for Gallifrey to be destroyed. Again.'

She didn't give her condolences, didn't try to express the sorrow she felt over the loss of their planet because she knew there weren't any words. Instead, she squeezed their hands and waited for one of them to break the silence. In the end, it was Romana who did.

'As wonderful as it is to meet you, Sarah Jane,' she began, 'future River sent us to you for a reason - though I am not sure I can see why. I don't mean to offend you, but unless you have some place to hide equipment that can detect empty planets, I don't see how you can possibly help us right now.'

Clearly, River was uncomfortable with the politely put critique on her friend, but Sarah didn't seem put out at all. Instead, she gave Romana a brilliant smile.

'Well, it's your lucky day. Come on, I have to show you something.' Wordlessly, they followed her upstairs and into the attic that promised the secrets of the universe. River smiled knowingly, but hung back to watch the scene play out in front of her.

‘Mr Smith,’ Sarah called, stepping in front of the chimney. 

Romana frowned and shot River a questioning look. ‘Is she talking to the wall?’ 

‘Mr Smith, I need you.’ 

River had to restrain herself to not laugh when Romana jumped a foot into the air as, with his usual fanfare, the wall opened and Mr Smith emerged. In front of them, Sarah shook her head.

‘Really, Mr Smith, I wish you would turn down that noise whenever I call you!’ She scolded, but it was clear that her heart wasn’t in it. Turning back around, she waved her guests to stand next to her and River stepped close immediately, but Romana couldn’t help stare. Not only at Mr Smith, but at the entire attic. There were all kinds of alien tech lying around, the walls lined with books - it felt very homey and cozy and she wondered if, perhaps, Sarah Jane Smith could be of help after all. 

‘Romana, this is Mr Smith,’ Sarah pulled her back from her thoughts and finally, Romana joined them in front of the computer. ‘He is a Xylok and he’s been helping protect the earth for over a decade now. Mr Smith, you remember River, of course, and this is our friend, President Romana of Gallifrey.’

‘Welcome, President Romana.’ Even for someone from Gallifrey, it was a little strange to be addressed directly by a sentient computer, she thought but tried to give him a smile. Smiling at computers, she then stopped herself, she must be going mental.

‘Just Romana, please.’

‘Sarah Jane, as I assume you did not only want to introduce me, how can I be of assistance to you?’

‘Mr Smith, you have access to planet charts from all across the Universe, don’t you? We were hoping that you would be able to find an uninhabited planet that the survivors from Gallifrey can settle on.’

‘Are there any specific perimeters you would like me to consider?’

‘Yes, there are,’ Romana interrupted, taking a step towards the keypad. ‘May I?’

‘Of course. Depending on the perimeters, finding potential planets will take some time. I will conduct a thorough analysis of all planets in my databanks, so if you don’t need me for anything else, I will begin now.’

‘Thank you, Mr Smith.’

Leaving the Xylok to it - and Romana would have to ask for that story later, because how on earth did Sarah Jane get her hands on a Xylok,  _ on earth _ ? - they wandered back downstairs and settled in the sitting room with some more tea.

‘So, Sarah Jane,’ River began, eyeing her friend carefully, ‘what’s with the perception filter?’

‘Oh, well.’ Sarah hesitated and Romana sat back in her seat, content to just watch and listen for the time being. ‘I’ve always looked younger than I was, so I never thought much of it. But about, oh, ten, twelve years ago, it started to get a bit too noticeable: Not a single grey hair, no new wrinkles - I shouldn’t be complaining, I know, but I’m human and I always  _ liked  _ being human.’ She shrugged, ignoring the frowns on both River’s and Romana’s faces. ‘Eventually, I had Mr Smith scan me and he said the natural aging process of my body had been slowed down significantly - he didn’t know why, but I think it might have something to do with all that radiation and whatever else I got exposed to when I was travelling with the Doctor.’

‘Exposure to the Vortex  _ is  _ known to influence DNA - I should know. Off my head, I couldn't come up with something more plausible,’ River admitted and Romana found herself agreeing silently. From the stories she had heard, Sarah Jane had been in quite a few situations of the sort and mixing DNA degrading from radiation with Atron particles from the Vortex, that sounded like a bad idea for keeping one’s DNA unaffected. 

‘Neither could I. I started wearing this -’ she held up the perception filter again, ‘- because I didn’t want the neighbours to notice. There’s enough talk already with all the aliens coming and going. Besides, there’s Luke. I didn’t want him to worry.’

‘How is he?’

‘Oh, he’s amazing! He’s got married since you’ve last been here, he and Sanjay are thinking about adoption. But it’s early stages yet - oh, I wish you’d come last week, they’d have loved to see you! They just left for a conference yesterday though, and they won’t be back for a month…’

‘That’s a pity, I’d have loved to see them - I can’t believe I missed their wedding! Romana, you’d love Luke, he’s brilliant, and so is his husband.’ Luke, Romana gathered, was Sarah Jane’s son, the young man she had seen in several pictures in the house already. So she gave them a smile and a nod, feeling a little like the third wheel in this little catch-up-session. Which now seemed to have turned to River, who just shrugged.

‘-not really sure, actually,’ she said. ‘Romana and I were talking earlier and we had several theories, but they’re just that, theories.’

‘You mean about your...regeneration problem?’ River nodded, of course Sarah would want to know about that now.

‘I thought it might have had something to do with having been stuck in the Matrix for so long, without a body. All my previous and possible future regenerations were flowing together, but I kept projecting the body I had longest, this one.’ She gestured at herself. ‘It’s possible that mucked up the possibility of different future bodies because I had mentally already liked them to this one.’

Sarah Jane frowned, gears visibly turning in her head. Finally, she slowly said, ‘I didn’t know you could influence regeneration like that?’ Half question, half statement, but it got her nothing but a shrug from both her friends.

‘Possibly. We don’t know, though.’

‘It’s not like there’s a precedent for a situation like that,’ Romana added. ‘I thought it might also be because when we loomed this body, we used the DNA sample we acquired from the Doctor’s TARDIS.’

‘Which obviously only had the hardwiring for this body, and bits from my previous regenerations, but not the thousand genetic possibilities Gallifreyan children are given when they’re loomed.’

‘I see. So you’re stuck with that body?’

‘Luckily, I am quite fond of it,’ River said with a smile. ‘But yes, essentially - I did die twice since I got it and I changed, but only a little. Bit taller, bit shorter, the hair a little darker or lighter - only small things, but they’re there. Preferences change, though, it’s quite annoying.’

‘And your personality?’

‘Mostly the same too - but not exactly. I used to be a lot more willing to take risks and make all kinds of sacrifices to get what I want - mind you, that could also just be age.’

‘Might be, it certainly was for me,’ Sarah admitted and shrugged lightly, cradling her mug close. Her eyes drifted to Romana, who had curled herself in one of the armchairs, watching the two of them chat. She smiled. ‘Romana, is it true that you’ve got a K-9 as well?’

‘Oh, that’s right, the Doctor gave one to you, didn’t he? Where is he?’ Suddenly, it was very hard to restrain herself, after all, K-9 was still a dear friend.

‘Sorry, Luke took him when he went off to Uni - I wanted him to have someone to protect him, you know? - and he’s still staying with him. It’s better for my nerves too, he kept fighting with Mr Smith, if you believe it.’

‘He was fighting with Mr Smith?’ echoed Romana in disbelief. Next to her, River grinned, but Sarah just sighed, exasperatedly.

‘Yes! Two alien computers, and all they do when they are together is  _ fight _ ! It was getting a bit ridiculous, though when it came down to it, they did work together well…actually, Romana, River, I’ve been meaning to ask, are you going to stay in yourTARDIS, or do you want me to set up the guest rooms?’

‘Guest room,’ they answered in unison. Startled, Sarah looked back and forth between them, then placed her empty mug on the table.

‘In that case, you can both come help me, if you don’t mind.’ 

They didn’t mind, of course, and even Romana had to admit that, in the haze of meeting first River and then Sarah Jane, the dark thoughts about Gallifrey’s destruction that had been hunting her before, seemed to have disappeared, if only for the time being.

Making up beds like children for a slumber party certainly made them all feel decidedly lighter than they had in a while and perhaps, Romana thought before falling asleep, things would work themselves out after all. 


	7. The President and the Assassin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where River and Romana finally do something about the wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter (and the last one) probably had the most comments by my wonderful beta-readers in terms of 'What? How could you?!' so I guess that says a lot about it. It was fun to write, though. Now I just hope it's as fun to read :)  
> Comments are love!

‘I am President of Gallifrey, and therefore, the Doctor’s conviction falls under my jurisdiction.’ Romana’s voice was calm and collected as she glared at the Governor of Stormcage. Their argument had been going back and forth for a while now and one got the distinct feeling that Romana was winning. Outside, still in the TARDIS, River followed the entire thing on one of the monitors, having come to the conclusion with Romana that it would be best if she stayed out of sight while at the Governor’s office.

In her younger, wilder days, when she had still been incarcerated in Stormcage herself, she had been a regular visitor in this particular office and they all agreed that their mission was rather more likely to fail if she showed up now. It wouldn’t have mattered if they just wanted to stage a prison break for the Doctor and get away, but Sarah had made a very good argument against that. If they wanted to get the Doctor free for good, she needed to be cleared of all charges - whatever they’d turn out to be - and that could only be done through the proper channels, so they decided to at least give it a try. A proper prison break could still be a backup plan, if needed.

Romana had tried to convince her to join them, but Sarah had declined, saying she had ‘a few things to do and settle back on earth’. And while she had her suspicions about the meaning of that, River didn’t dwell on it and instead focused fully on the discussion outside. She rather liked this regeneration of Romana, she seemed to have little trouble making the Governor cower before her.

‘I do not want to go through any other of your records, Governor,’ she said coldly. ‘I simply want the Doctor so she may be brought to justice by her own people. Not some -’ she hesitated, looking him and the Judoon next to him up and down dismissively, ‘-alien pretend-police.’

One had to give it to Romana, she knew how to boss people around and she could talk circles around anyone - River felt almost sorry for the Governor by the time she was done with him. He didn’t even notice, just looking resigned when he handed over the Doctor’s file and gave her permission to enter the Judoon wing. It didn’t mean that she was quite free yet, but it was a start.

After that, it was a simple matter of moving the disguised TARDIS to the entrance of the Judoon wing and wait for the others to arrive. It didn’t take too long, the Judoon leading them towards the entrance grudgingly. Had her thoughts not been so preoccupied trying to get to the Doctor, Romana would have probably drank in everything with hungry eyes. Lady President she might be now, she still used to travel with the Doctor and it had left a curiosity for all foreign places she encountered. Even if they happened to be a prison.. As it was, she had a rather grim look on her face and was radiating determination that left no doubt she would get done what they had come to do. 

‘This is Professor Song,’ she introduced River when they reached her, leaning unperturbed against the high security gate. ‘She will be joining us.’

‘She has no permission,’ the Judoon, who’s name River hadn’t caught, protested. Romana glared at him.

‘She is the Doctor’s wife. She needs no more permission than that.’ Could the Judoon shrug, he would have but instead, he just tilted his head for River to step aside so he could let them all in and gave no more protest.

It was strange, River thought as she followed them through the hallways, lined with prison cells left and right. It was strange to walk through Stormcage, a sort of home for a good hundred years of her life, as an outsider, a free woman. 

Whenever she had been scouring these halls before, she had been a prisoner herself, either braking in or out again, or, on rarer occasions, on her way to yet another mission to help her appeal her sentence. At the time, every prisoner in every cell had known and feared her - she had been known as the worst of the worst, ruthless, calculating and merciless. She had worked so hard to build up her reputation in the universe and even after twenty years of living in this time again, it was still strange to run into it again. The hundreds of years in the library and on Gallifrey before coming back, she had been someone else entirely, untainted by the actions and the pretense River Song portrayed to the entire universe. 

They took several turns River vaguely recognised from the floor plans of the other areas of Stormcage and finally came to stop in front of a heavy steel door.

‘You need to speak to the Warden about the release of “the Doctor”,’ the Judoon explained coldly and pressed several keys on the pad next to the door. It slid open without a sound, classic future technology. They stepped into the office, River and Romana in the front this time. ‘The ones who want to appeal the Doctor’s sentence.’

There was a short conversation between the Judoon who had brought them and the one occupying the office, before the latter turned his attention to his guests.

‘What do you want?’

‘To take the Doctor with us,’ Romana repeated. ‘She is to be brought before the council of Gallifrey, so we shall retrieve her from your care. It is no longer necessary.’

‘Why do you want her?’

‘She does not fall under your jurisdiction.’ This time it was River who answered, eyes hard. ‘As a Gallifreyan Time Lord, she needs to face the justice of her own people.’

‘And neither the Judoon nor the Shadow Proclamation have any rule over the people of Gallifrey.’

‘Unless you get her here now and allow us all to leave with her, I’m afraid I’ll have to blow this place up.’ The Judoon made an odd sound, as if he was snorting, at River’s words, but her face was dead serious. 

‘You have no authority to interfere with the Doctor’s sentence.’

‘Yes we do. I am the Doctor’s wife. By rights of Article 261, §739 of the Proclamation of Galactic Law, in this time period enforced by the Shadow Proclamation, I have  _ every _ right to not only see my wife, but also appeal her sentence on her behalf while she is incapacitated.’

‘And I am the highest authority of Gallifrey, the planet the Doctor originates from. She may have spent a lot of time on Sol3, also known as Earth, with humans, but she is still one of my subjects, one that you, according to Article 3907, §842 of the Proclamation of Galactic Law, have no authority over whatsoever. So please, do try to provoke me and see if the Shadow Proclamation will be as lenient with your practices here in Stormcage afterwards.’

‘I,’ growled the Judoon angrily, ‘will not be threatened by two nimble females -’

‘Do you even know who we are?’ River’s voice was low, cutting and cold. Just a moment ago, the hard threat in Romana’s voice had been evident, but it had nothing on River’s voice right now. Even Romana herself, who was on her side, had to force herself not to shiver and retreat. There was a reason, she thought, both River Song and Patience had been regarded not only as highly skilled, but had also been classified as potential threats of the highest level.

She stepped forward, behind the desk, sneaking around the Judoon soundlessly like a cat in the night.

No one dared to move. Whatever was going on, it was out of their hands now.

‘You have no idea,’ River whispered, yet everyone heard her, ‘who you are dealing with. Have you already forgotten who I am? Have you really forgotten my face?’ The Judoon didn’t move, paralysed by the woman even he could perceive as a threat. ‘I’m River Song. And I’ve done my research.’

With a single, fast, unexpected motion, River had disarmed the Judoon and her blaster pressed to the back of his head. A rhino he might be, but even rhinos, especially ones not wearing full armor, couldn’t survive a shot from a sonic blaster pressed against their skull that way. 

‘Today,’ River continued as if nothing had happened, ‘is the day the Judoon wing of Stormcage ceases to exist. And you know what? There won’t be any casualties amongst the prisoners.’ She paused, quickly glancing at Romana who watched the entire scene unfold with an eerily impassive look.

‘No casualties,’ she repeated, ‘because there are no prisoners in this part of Stormcage. It’s empty. It was built for one purpose, and one purpose only. It was built to contain the Doctor. But the Doctor is leaving today because we are here to take her with us.’

‘What happens to you is your own choice,’ Romana suddenly cut in. ‘Either let us get the Doctor and leave, or be contained here while we get her on our own and be here when we leave still.’ Perhaps there was still more of Romana III in her than she usually displayed, cold and calculating like this. Romana II certainly would have been horrified by the display before her, but right now, she didn’t even blink. 

‘You will never find her,’ the Judoon finally spat at them, unwilling to cooperate.

‘Your choice.’ River shrugged and before he could move out of her reach, she had thrust the end of her blaster into the sensitive spot right next to the Judoon’s ear. With a loud clatter, he slumped down on the floor, knocked out cold.

Neither River nor Romana paid him any more attention as Romana grabbed his keycard from the table. River was already waiting by the door, sonic pointed at the control that would open it.

‘Are you going to leave him like that?’

River shrugged. ‘No point in shooting him. The records said he dies in the fire, so why bother?’

‘Then let’s get going.’

They did. Outside, flashing the keycard at the guards was all it took to be pointed in the right direction. 

One should have thought that in a prison wing built to contain only one prisoner, security for said prisoner would be at a peak at all times. But it seemed that being so secluded and cut off from the rest of the prison had made the Judoon uncharacteristically lax in their suspiciousness of strangers, even when they were waving high clearance access cards at them. But even if they hadn’t been told which direction to go in, their scanners showed the lifesigns of only one non-Judoon presence in the entire area and River knew the halls well enough to lead them there without any delay.

‘This should be it,’ Romana finally announced in front of a heavy steel door. It looked no different than any of the other cell doors they had passed, vastly different from the iron bars in River’s former cell, and had their scanners not indicated a gallifreyan presence inside the cell, they would have just walked past it. 

Impatiently, River snatched the keycard from Romana and held it to the key panel next to the door. 

Nothing happened. 

‘What…’ she hissed, frustration blatant on her face. Even Romana frowned. So far, everything had gone off without a hitch - minor hitches - so perhaps they shouldn’t have been surprised that they were now running into obstacles just before reaching their destination. River was having none of it, her eyes shining with determination. ‘Blast it.’

It wasn’t intended for Romana, who jumped back just in time as River pulled out her sonic and pointed it at the control panel. It whized for a moment, gave a blaring signal, then shut down. Romana briefly considered pulling River back, but she had already pulled out her blaster and aimed it at the panel. One precise shot was all it took before the casing of the little box snapped open and its innards were laid bare for them. Between the two of them, hot-wiring the circuits took less than five minutes and finally, the door slid open.

‘Doctor?’ Carefully, River stepped into the cell while Romana waited outside, keeping an eye on both the hallway and the door so it wouldn’t lock them in.

Despite the difference from the outside, the cell looked very much like River’s had when she first arrived in Stormcage. There were no personal belongings anywhere, nothing that said anything about the person inhabiting the cell.

The Doctor was lying on the cot, her eyes closed but River knew that she wasn’t asleep. Without hesitation, she made her way over to her.

‘Doctor?’ she asked again. ‘It’s me. River. I’m here to take you home. Prison break for you, not me, for once, so -’

‘Stop.’ She did. It wasn’t hearing her wife’s voice for the first time, it was how cold and resigned she sounded. ‘You’re not River. River is dead. She died in the library. If I open my eyes now, she won’t be there because you are playing mind-games again.’

‘Oh sweetie,’ River whispered, horrified and furious about what had apparently been going on before their arrival. Gently, she took another step towards the Doctor and knelt down next to the cot, all while speaking in that soft voice she reserved only for the Doctor. ‘I’m going to sit down next to you, my love. And then I am going to touch your hands, so you can feel that I am really truly here. But if you still do not believe me then, I will whisper something to you. Not out loud, just in your mind, if you let me. Something only me, the real River, can know.’

‘You can’t be real,’ the Doctor repeated but she also didn’t protest when River laced their fingers together and brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead. Blonde now too. Pretty.

The moment her fingers grazed the Doctor’s forehead, she opened her own mind, just enough to reach out to her wife, and whispered her name, and the promise made on their wedding on Gallifrey, and suddenly, the Doctor’s eyes snapped open.

‘River!’ The moment seemed to last for an eternity as they stared at each other, unable to fathom the happiness of seeing one another again after so long. It was impossible for them to say, despite their timesense, how long they had been lost in the other’s eyes before the Doctor finally broke the silence, reaching out to cradle River’s face between her hands.

‘You’re older,’ she whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. ‘I saw you die. But you’re alive, and you’re here -’

‘It’s a long story, sweetie,’ River interrupted gently and pushed herself up. ‘Can you stand? The sooner we get out of here the better - we can catch you up in the TARDIS.’

‘Alright.’ Grasping River’s offered hand, the Doctor stood up too and, with one last glance around her cell, made her way over to the door. She never made it through the door, stopping dead when she felt who stood outside, giving her a mischievous smile. ‘Romana?!’

‘The one and only.’

‘But, but you died.’ The Doctor eyed her old friend, eyes narrowed. ‘You’ve regenerated.’

‘Yes. So have you - finally a woman now, do you like it?’ 

‘I’m short.’ Her face scrunched up at that, when the realisation that both River and Romana were now taller than her - though not by much. They both laughed and Romana finally pulled her out of the cell and into a warm hug.

‘It’s good to have you back, Doctor,’ she said. They held each other for a moment but pulled apart when River’s scanner started giving off a high-pitched beeping. She cursed.

‘We have to go. Someone triggered a security protocol and if we don’t hurry, we’ll be stuck in here when the place blows up.’ 

‘Then let’s go - up for a run, Doctor?’ Romana pointedly ignored the Doctor’s look of upset upon hearing that they were planning to blow up the prison, but River glanced at her.

‘It was built for you, sweetie. There are no other prisoners here. And it’s in the history books that it blows up today, so all we do is keep the timeline intact.’

And that was that, because the next thing they knew, they were running down the corridors they had come through, up several flights of stairs and then finally towards the main gate of the Judoon wing, right where the TARDIS was waiting for them. Still in the run, River pulled out her sonic and pointed it at the gate and unlike the cell door downstairs, it swung open immediately, letting them pass without trouble. From there, it was only getting into the TARDIS and then into the vortex, which seemed to take no time at all. 

‘Oh, I missed you, old girl,’ the Doctor whispered with a beaming grin on her face, wandering around the TARDIS with her fingers trailing along the walls. ‘I haven’t been without you for so long since way back when I was working for UNIT, remember that? Oh, I’ve really, really missed you.’

‘Well, glad as I am that you are reunited, I think we are all in dire need of some tea,’ River announced. ‘And we need to catch you up on a few things, Doctor.’

No one could argue with that, and tea was always a good idea, so it didn’t take long before they were all seated around the kitchen table with steaming mugs in front of them. 

The Doctor told them what had happened after her capture and being taken prisoner - no torture per say, and she had been treated well, but they had the nasty habit of using some sort of telepathic devide to project the voices of people into the Doctor’s mind. 

River and Romana, in return, brought her up to speed about the fate of Gallifrey and what they had been doing for the last few weeks. Then Romana caught her up on being reinstated as President, regenerating herself and finally, she excused herself with a smile.

‘The two of you,’ she said, ‘you need some time to yourselves. Talk about -’ River gave her a sharp look - ‘things.’

‘Thank you, Romana.’ Once she’d left, River and the Doctor looked at each other for a long moment before River, very tentatively, asked: ‘Maybe we should move this conversation somewhere more comfortable.’

They ended up in the sitting room next to their bedroom, the one that was off limits for companions, family only. The first order of business, as River called it, was to finally explain how she had gotten out of the Library and back into a body.

‘I am so sorry you died for me,’ the Doctor whispered eventually, not looking at River for the tears in her eyes. But River was having none of it, gently brushing them off her cheeks.

‘I would do it all over again. I said the same thing to my parents, not too long ago: There were parts of my life that were horrible, yes, but the good bits make up for it by tenfold.’

‘But you haven’t seen me since the library and the last few times I saw you before that-’ she choked but River just smiled, that ancient, knowing smile that had always driven her crazy.

‘There’s something I haven’t told you yet,’ she said softly. ‘But it might be easier to...show you. May I?’

‘Of course. You don’t need to ask, River. Never you.’ At the conviction in the Doctor’s voice, River’s smile broadened, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she placed her fingers on her wife’s temples and let their foreheads drop together. Then, she slipped into the Doctor’s mind.

In the years that she had been living on Gallifrey, River had spent a lot of time studying the arts of the mind. One could say she had become quite the expert at it, so when she found herself in this brilliant mind as familiar as her own, she walked through it with ease. 

The Doctor let her. She wondered, of course, where she was going, why she wouldn’t show her any memories of her own, and held back a gasp when River made her way towards a set of memories she hardly ever pulled forth. If one was speaking in images, it would perhaps be best to describe them as dusty and half forgotten. A little like an old photograph with a sheen covering it, the old box in the corner of the attic that was so covered by cobwebs that it looked like a single touch would make it crumble to dust.

Over the years, she had often tried to remove the metaphorical cobwebs in order to retrieve the memories inside the box, but she had always failed. So when River made her way towards them, the Doctor wasn’t sure what she expected to happen. Not much.

Only, when River touched the cobwebs, they...disappeared. Just like that.

And then she opened the box, smiled and left the Doctor’s mind. 

For a long time, the Doctor just sat in silence, tears making their way down her cheeks as half forgotten memories settled in place again, became clear as if they had just happened yesterday and when she finally opened her eyes, they were filled with nothing but genuine love and adoration.

‘ _ Oh River, _ ‘ she whispered breathlessly, then pulled her wife into a soft kiss. River melted into her arms and just clung to her, as if holding her wife for the first time.

‘It’s you.’ It almost sounded like she couldn't believe it. ‘It’s always been you, only ever you, oh River - I’m so sorry I made you do-’

‘Hush, sweetie.’ A finger covered the Doctor’s lips and she stopped talking, waiting for her wife to continue. The pure love in River’s eyes matched hers and for the first time in centuries, she really felt like she was complete. River gave her a warm smile. ‘It was the only way. We agreed on it, didn’t we? We both knew that one day, you’d leave and when you did, you couldn’t remember me because you didn’t know me when you met me later.’

‘But it hurt you!’

  
‘And I told you: It was well worth it. I don’t regret one single moment of it.’

‘Even when I was a grumpy old git?’ The way the Doctor’s face scrunched up at the memories of her earlier incarnations was adorable and River couldn’t hold back a small laugh as she shook her head.

‘You really were, weren’t you? But no -’ her curls bounces around her shoulders ‘- not even those times.’

‘I always thought…’ She paused, eyes finding River’s, and started over. ‘I always thought you were amazing, ever since the first time I used to remember meeting you. You knew so much about me, but back then, you also scared the hell out of me. And then I got to know you and you treated every one of my regenerations the same and I thought, “that kind of love is so rare even on Gallifrey, spanning regenerations”, and “she’d love it there”, but now, now I know you did and we -’ suddenly, her eyes widened. ‘The children!’

This time, it was River who averted her eyes. ‘Susan is fine,’ she said slowly. ‘She was time locked on Gallifrey, after...you know.’

‘What about the others?’

‘Ben is fine. He’s on Romana’s council.’ She hesitated, swallowed thickly. ‘Emilia, Sarah and Arthur didn’t survive the war.’

‘Oh.’ What a pathetic reaction, the Doctor thought to herself, to learn about the death of her own children. Children she had grieved for centuries when she had not even remembered their names but thought them all dead on the planet that had once been her home.

‘Ben has two children now,’ River interrupted her dark dwellings, pulling her back to lighter ground. ‘Sarah’s children…’ She shook her head. ‘They were all together.’

‘When?’

‘Arcadia. They moved there, long before the war. Arthur was with them too.’

‘What about Em?’ She didn’t really want to know, but she had to. She needed to know, even if she feared the answer.

‘She was out fighting. Couldn’t stop her, no matter how hard I tried. You know how she was.’ Rubbing her head, River pushed herself up and wandered over to the window, staring out into space. For a long moment, silence hung over the room before she spoke up again. ‘Susan was with her. She told me what happened. Em died protecting her.’ She whirled around, grief suddenly painting deep lines on her face, making her seem older than ever. ‘It should have been me, out there, fighting, protecting them, and I couldn’t because it was written in the damn history books that I was not involved!’

‘Even if you had been there,’ the Doctor said softly, stepping closer, ‘there was nothing you could have done. It was a war, a terrible, unfair war and we did what had to be done.’

‘I know.’ There was nothing but resignation on River’s face, resignation the Doctor could understand better than anyone. They all had lost so much in the Time War, and even more now, yet they had to stay strong and be brave and go on for the sake of the people who looked up to them.

‘Jenny has been living with me for a while,’ River suddenly said, a smile back on her face. ‘I went looking for her after I left Gallifrey, and it turned out she didn’t die on Messaline.’

‘Really? Oh, that’s fantastic!’ It was nice, knowing that with all the terrible things that had happened, there had also been good things like Jenny coming home and Susan and Ben’s children - she looked at her wife and smiled back at her.

‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go home meet the family!’


	8. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where a lot of people talk a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little late today, but better late than never. We're nearing the end - two more chapters to go!  
> Please let me know it you enjoyed :)

‘People of Gallifrey!’

In every TARDIS, Romana’s face flickered across the monitors. In every TARDIS, the adults and children gathered in the control rooms to watch their President. In every TARDIS, the tension was tangible, excitement and fear buzzing through everyone.

‘People of Gallifrey!’ Romana repeated with a smile. She had abandoned the garments traditionally worn by the President and had opted for a plain yet elegant business suit. It didn’t seem to matter, she still carried that air of authority and kindness she was known for in this regeneration and the people were waiting for her to continue. 

‘We all have suffered a great loss,’ she said. ‘We have lost our beloved planet, our home. Gallifrey. We thought we made it, we survived the Time War, the timelock - and our home was still taken from us. By one of our very own, for something our forefathers did generations ago. And while I do not agree with the Master’s actions, the destruction he brought us, I will not stand for what the early people of Gallifrey did. And neither will you.

‘When the High Council of Gallifrey made me President of Gallifrey again, they thought I would comply to being their puppet. But I did not. I received intelligence, a warning by a dear friend, that danger was heading our way, that Gallifrey would be destroyed. I was told there was nothing I could do to stop that from happening, but I could still save my people.

‘Yet when I spoke to them, many didn’t listen, didn’t seek shelter like I asked them too. The ones who did, the ones who sought safety and survived, the ones who believed me - believed  _ in  _ me, those people are you. And I want to thank you for trusting me, for leaving your homes and lives on Gallifrey behind just because I told you to.

‘When we watched the destruction by the Master, I asked you for patience. I asked you to take care of the children and the young, even if they are not your own, and I asked you to wait for me to find us a new home.

‘I could have sent informants out into the universe to find us a new home, but I was afraid to lose someone, that it would deminish our numbers even further. We were proud people, but much of our history has been built on lies. You followed me, trusted me and believed my judgement when I called danger. That gives me cause to believe that you, too, would agree when I say that our ancestors made a wrong choice, a mistake. They isolated us from other species, only to interfere from afar, but they were wrong. We have friends in the universe, all across the worlds, and they wanted to help.

‘And help they did. With their assistance, it took us mere days to find an uninhabited planet suited to our needs. A terraforming device took care of everything else, so once you set the coordinates, you will find yourselves on the way to your new home. 

‘But remember - it is not ready yet. It may be habitable and beautiful, but it is still an empty planet. Making it our home will take time and patience. But no matter how long it takes, we will make it our new home. And while we built our cities, our new world, from scratch, we will abolish the old rites, the ones that do not do anyone good. This new Gallifrey, it will not be like the one we left behind. And it will never be. So let us learn from our mistakes and make New Gallifrey the best we can.’

In their TARDISes, people were cheering, albeit some more reluctant than others. But their President was right, of course, and they were all very much aware of that. They kept watching as Romana bent forward and typed something below the monitor before stepping back again. The TARDISes beeped.

‘You have just received the coordinates of New Gallifrey. Please do not materialise on the surface, I would prefer not to have TARDISes overlapping by accident.’ Suddenly, the screen split and a second face appeared, a grinning, blonde woman. Behind her, they could spot the President’s right hand over the last few weeks - River.

‘Hello everyone, this is the Doctor speaking,’ the woman introduced herself and Romana nodded, an implication for everyone that whatever the Doctor had to say, she was aware and in favour of it. 

‘Right then, listen up everyone. If you materialise in orbit, you can take a spin ‘round the planet, see if you fancy it somewhere down there. Then fly your TARDISes down, gravity’s ‘bout the same as on Gallifrey, so that shouldn’t be any trouble. Anyway,’ she brushed a stray strand of hair back behind her ear and scrunched up her face, looking at the monitor in front of her. For a moment, she frowned at whatever she was seeing, then her face lit up and she stepped back again.

‘Anyway,’ she repeated, ‘try not to crash your TARDISes into each other while landing, they don’t like that - but I’m sure you all know that. So, when you go planetside, there are some areas - they’re marked on the maps we send you - we did send them the maps, did we?’ Wide eyed and frowning, the Doctor turned to River, who fondly rolled her eyes and nodded, stepping closer too. 

‘Everyone should find a set of maps with the coordinates you just received. There are areas marked that seem suitable for building towns and cities, please try and stay clear of those for now,’ River explained and both the Doctor and Romana nodded, the former rather fervently before taking over again.

‘So, other than in the City areas, you can just go wherever you want. You could even turn your TARDISes into houses, if you like, if your chameleon circuits work - now that’d be handy, wouldn’t it River? Maybe we  _ should _ fix them after all…’ For a moment, she looked thoughtful, until Romana cleared her throat and her eyes snapped back into focus. ‘Ah, yes, sorry. Where was I? Right, chameleon circuits, if you would like to live in the city areas, it’s probably better if you go for something smaller than a house, it’s bigger on the inside anyway. So yeah, might be best to not go that big - oh, and try not to blend in with nature, you might never find your TARDIS again. Which reminds me, maybe put a nametag on the outside, so you know which one’s your’s.’

At that, even Romana couldn’t stifle a snort, that was just such a Doctor-like statement. The Doctor herself just glared at her through the monitor but didn’t actually say anything. Realising that she was done, River stepped forward again.

‘That is all for now, in terms of instructions. Please try to arrive in parallel time or a little later but don’t go before yesterday, the terraforming was only completed last night.’

‘Yes, please do keep that in mind. Any further instructions and plans for the future can wait until we are planetside, I’m sure you are all curious to see our new home. I will see you there.’ With a last smile, Romana flicked a lever and her camera turned off, leaving the monitors in the various TARDISes black.

Whether the people liked Romana or not, whether they had supported her presidency or not, whether they wanted to follow her and the Doctor now or not - none of it mattered. They had all seen it, had seen their planet fall into destruction as bad as the Time War, knew they had lost everything. 

And Romana had warned them, and then kept cool when they had been panicking. Within a few days, she had found them a new planet to move to, to rebuild their lives and start anew, and even those who did not like or support her, even they could respect that. 

Of course, it didn’t go off without a hitch. Things like that never did - and they weren’t talking about a few hundred people, they were talking millions. With many of them still too young to help with building anything, one of the first things to be done was to establish orphanages and some form of childcare. Enough adult Gallifreyans were with them that the economy didn’t collapse. Within weeks, the architects had made plans to construct the cities while those who chose to live in the countryside took up farming and supplying the population with crops and other food.

The terraforming, at least, had worked like a charm, and with the assembled data from all the TARDISes, it had been easy enough to influence the device, resulting in a flora that largely resembled the one they knew from Gallifrey.

Being a race that ran on an hour of sleep per night did have it’s advantages - it didn’t take long before the Capital was built, partly after the image of Gallifrey’s Capital, partly modeled after the impressions architects recalled from studying other societies.

There were committees for everything: Building the cities, infrastructure, making sure everyone had an adequate supply of food, childcare, getting the economy up and rolling again - and of course, rebuilding their government and justice body from scratch, crossing out all corruption and the likes in the process.

The most surprising thing, however, was how little the people seemed to mind. One would have thought that a society as high and mighty as Gallifrey had seemed to be would refuse to start anew, from the bottom up, but they didn’t. 

Because they all agreed: They had lost their home, their planet - their everything.

But they still had each other and they found a new home, a new way of life and being stuffy and prim wouldn’t help them. So, for once, the people of Gallifrey decided to swallow their pride and start over.


	9. Presents from the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where River clears up a few things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we're almost done. Now I hope you'll enjoy this chapter that will fill in all the gaps are still open about things that happened in the past.  
> Reviews are love ♡

The knock on the door made Amy frown. She turned to Rory, who was trying to balance Anthony on his knee and feed him his lunch, but he just shrugged.

‘I’m not expecting anyone.’

‘I’ll see who it is, then,’ Amy sighed and disappeared into the hall. She was perfectly ready to properly dress down to whoever dared disturb their peaceful Sunday afternoon, but when she saw who was standing at her doorstep, she couldn’t help but stare. ‘Susan?’

‘Hello, Amy.’ Susan gave her a small smile. ‘I think I should not call you great-grandmother here, people would think that very odd, but I do have something important to tell you - may I come in?’

‘Of course.’ Amy stepped aside to let Susan past without any hesitation, but she couldn’t help frowning at her in worry. ‘You’re not pregnant, are you?’ 

‘What? _No_!’ Going by her emphatic reaction, she really wasn’t, but Amy wasn’t sure if she should be relieved and if she should laugh at the horror on Susan’s face or rather worry what else could have brought her to their doorstep.

‘No, I’m not pregnant,’ Susan repeated after she hung her coat on the rack and followed Amy into the living room. Immediately, she crouched down in front of Rory. ‘Hello Anthony, how is my favourite uncle doing?’ she cooed, not noticing how both Amy’s and Rory’s eyebrows shot up. How could she know Anthony, not only by name but clearly actually know _him_ when she had never been here before?

‘Susan, not that it’s not nice to see you,’ Rory finally tried, ‘but what _are_ you doing here?’

‘Well, grandmother sent me.’ She shrugged and flopped herself on the sofa in a decidedly out-of-time style.

‘Melody sent you?’ At least that had gotten her both her great-grandparents’ attention. 

‘Yes. You know that she can’t come herself - she’s too involved in the paradoxes around here already, if she came, they’d probably snap. So she asked me to come check on you instead, because this is before I moved to London with Grandfather - that was in the early 60s, so I’m still only in one place at a time. Grandmother wanted to know if you found everything and got all the things she set up for you, but you obviously did.’

‘We did - we shouldn’t have been surprised, should we, Amy, that she’d take care of everything. Please, Susan, tell her thank you from us, will you?’

‘Of course. But you can tell her yourself, actually.’ When Amy and Rory frowned, she gave them a grin. ‘That’s the other reason she sent me here today.’

‘But you just said she could never come to see us here,’ Amy said pointedly.

‘And she made it very clear in her letter that we can’t leave here either lest we cause another paradox,’ Rory added.

‘True, true.’ Susan’s grin widened. ‘But who said anything about coming or going anywhere?’

‘Well, how else are we supposed to talk to her? Do you have some sort of space-time-video chat?’

‘Not quite. But time travel has always been possible in dreams.’

‘What?’

‘Well. This Silurian Lady, a friend of Grandmother and Grandfather - oh, you know Madame Vastra too, don’t you? She and Grandmother are great friends, and when Grandmother was dead in the Library, she always invited her over for tea in a sort of dream conference,’ Susan explained. Amy and Rory just stared at her, not sure which bit of information they should address first, but Susan didn’t give them time to get a word in. ‘You need this substance - you couldn’t pronounce it - and then put yourself in a trance or go to sleep. And once you’re asleep, you’ll find yourself in the place the host set up - it can be anything, really, anywhere, anywhen.

‘Grandmother gave me a bunch of candles, just lighten them and then go to sleep next to them and she’ll do the rest. If you want to talk to her now, I can look after Tony,’ she added after a moment of hesitation, smiling at the baby. Amy and Rory shared a look.

‘And it’s safe?’ He asked, slightly sceptical, and Susan nodded.

‘Oh yes, it is. I’ve done it a few times, and Grandmother does it all the time with Vastra and Jenny - not our Jenny, Vastra’s wife. It is absolutely harmless - all you do is go to sleep, really.’

‘Rory, I don’t think River would send us something that could be dangerous for us to use,’ Amy noted and Rory, with a deep sigh, nodded.

‘She wouldn’t.’

‘Well, then let’s try this? Rory? Susan?’

‘I’ll look after Tony - here.’ Reaching into her bag, Susan handed them a dark green candle. ‘But maybe go into the other room - or I take Tony up to the nursery? So I don’t fall asleep too, by accident.’

‘That’s probably a good idea,’ Rory agreed. It didn’t take long for Susan to scoop up Anthony and his toys and with a little wave, she disappeared upstairs with him. Amy and Rory shared a long look before making themselves comfortable and lightning the candle. Within moments, both of them were fast asleep.

  
  


* * *

  
  


‘Mum, dad, you can open your eyes.’ The voice was all too familiar and Amy’s eyes snapped open. She paid no mind to her surroundings, instead found herself staring at her daughter, unable to tear her eyes away. River gave her a warm, brilliant smile. ‘It’s wonderful to see you.’

‘It’s wonderful to see _you_ ,’ Rory corrected and moved over to pull her into a hug. For a moment, Amy wanted to hold him back - how could they possibly hug someone in a dream, how could River be solid? But she was, and held on to her father, tight like a child seeking comfort after a nightmare. It was all Amy needed to rush over too, throw her arms around them and for a long moment, they just clung together, a torn family reunited in a dream that wasn’t one. Or maybe it was and Amy had just lost every perception of reality - but her daughter, in her arms, she felt real, and not at all like a faint and fuzzy dream.

‘There’s sofas over there,’ River eventually said, interrupting their family hug and finally, both Amy and Rory took a moment to actually look at the room. Or whatever it was. Maybe more a conservatory - plenty of comfortable looking sofas and armchairs, flowers and plants everywhere, sunlight from the top - and a nice pot of hot, steaming tea on the coffee table. ‘We could sit and talk.’

‘Sounds like a plan.’ Amy agreed with a nod and followed her husband and her daughter over, sinking onto the sofa next to River. Her daughter gave her a warm smile when she put an arm around her shoulders and scooted closer to rest her head on her shoulder. Even though her hair was tickling Amy’s nose, she couldn’t stop smiling - this face of her daughter’s had never been young but even if she hadn’t been told so before, she’d have known that this version of River was far older than the last version they had met in New York, 1938.

‘We have to thank you, Melody.’ Rory’s voice pulled Amy from her musings and her eyes darted over to her husband, who was looking at their daughter. Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, River pulled away and sat up straight.

‘Whatever for?’ she wanted to know and frowned at the look of disbelief from her parents. ‘I mean it, whatever for?’

‘For everything you did,’ Amy explained, slowly, suddenly afraid to run into the cursed “spoilers” again. ‘Making sure we were set up here, in the past, taking care of everything?’

‘Oh, _that._ ’ River waved her hand. ‘Of course, yes, it was the first thing I did once I left the Doctor. That was such a long time ago, it completely slipped my mind - I take it Jack picked you up and took care of you?’

‘Oh yes,’ Amy grinned, ‘he was quite marvellous. Where did you find him?’ Rory glared at her, but River grinned back, suddenly more Mels and River than Melody.

‘Known him for ages - married him once, even.’ She sobered. ‘He’s a good friend, has been for a long time. I don’t know if he left you a way to contact him?’ They shook their heads and she nodded once. ‘I’ll take care of it, then. He’ll probably be by soon, or at least send you a message how to get in touch with him. Please, if you ever need anything, let him know. But do me a favour and don’t go looking for the version of him running around in England, he’s not with Torchwood quite yet and he doesn’t know me yet. Well, he’s met me, but he’d probably try to kill me.’

‘What?’ Rory looked slightly confused, but Amy just nodded.

‘Stay away from the Jack in this time and Torch-whatever-it-was, don’t tell him about you if we run into him anyway and if we need help, call your Jack who actually does know us, got it.’

‘Yes, and don’t try meddling with Torchwood. Stay away from them, I mean it,’ River continued, her face serious. ‘They’re no real threat for you, not now, not here in America, but if you visit England again, don’t let them hear that you know the Doctor. Oh, that reminds me -’ she pulled a small address book from her pocket and handed it over to Rory, ‘-in case you do get into trouble, these are a few people in this time period who should be able to help you out, if you can’t get ahold of Jack. In about ten years, UNIT is going to be founded and the Doctor - an earlier version of him, that is, will be working there as a scientific advisor in about twenty five years?. They know him before that, of course, so I put together an assortment of the most important contacts for you, with years when they’ll be active.’

‘Thank you, Melody. But -’ Amy carefully reached for her daughter’s hands, forcing herself to broach the subject lingering in her mind since they arrived, ‘-there’s something I have to tell you. I’m so, so sorry.’ She took a deep breath and looked up into River’s eyes. They were warm and understanding, knowing. It was oddly reassuring. ‘I’m sorry that when that Angel took Rory, I didn’t care about you. I was so selfish, I was just thinking about me and my best friend but you’re my daughter and I, I had the chance to say goodbye, to tell you I loved you and instead I asked you to look after the Doctor. He’s your husband, I didn’t need to tell you to look after him, and I wasted that one chance I had and that’s something I never really forgave myself for and-’

‘I did.’ River’s voice was gentle as she interrupted her mother, giving her hands a soft squeeze. ‘I’ve long forgiven you for that. I’ve had so many years to think about it and you know, if it had been me - I would have asked you the same. Look after him, be it my husband or my father - I’d have done the same. It’s why I let you go, you know, why I told you to go after dad and not stay with us. So trust me, mother. There is nothing more to forgive.’

‘Thank you,’ Amy whispered and wiped away the lone tear that had found its way down her cheek. 

‘I never got the chance to thank you for that either, you know? That you sent Amy to me,’ Rory clarified quickly and nodded thoughtfully. ‘I was worried there, for a moment when I was all alone, but then she was there and suddenly, whatever it was - I knew we could face it together. So thank you, for saving both of us.’

‘Of course.’ The smile of River’s face was still wide and genuine, it was impossible not to return it. ‘I’d do it all over again - all of it. It’s what brought us here, in the end. I don’t think any of us thought we’d end up like this, but I’ve long stopped regretting any of it.’

‘What do you mean?’ Amy’s smile slipped all of a sudden, dark memories of shooting Melody, Mels dying, River in pain, pushing to the forefront of her mind. It seemed River knew exactly where her thoughts were heading, for she gave her hands another gentle squeeze and gazed thoughtfully at the two of them.

‘The last time you saw me, I was so incredibly young, mother. Barely 200. I spent years running after Manhattan, only to then suddenly stop for 24 years. One night on Darillium, the last night for River and the Doctor, where their story ends - but it had barely even begun.’ She seemed far away, her eyes clouded, only to suddenly snap to fix on Rory. ‘Remember how I once told you of the thing I feared most? Not my death, not my husband’s, but the day I would meet him and be a stranger to him. I told you I thought it would kill me.’ 

She shrugged. ‘It did. Not metaphorically, I really died. Only, that wonderful idiot husband of mine knew, of course he knew, so he saved me. Into the biggest library in the Universe, until the day it was destroyed.’ For a moment, her gaze was lost in the distance again but neither one of her parents dared interrupt her tale. Eventually, she continued, voice soft. ‘The TARDIS always knew. She exists at any point in time at any time, all at once. She’s just as much my parent as you are, and she took care of me.

‘I ended up in the Matrix on Gallifrey, an anomaly, and someone found me. Someone who, as it turned out, knew me and had the power and ability to help me. She got me out and there I was again, alive, new old me. On Gallifrey, knowing I couldn’t stay. Only, it turned out I could. Because I already had.’ Smiling, River held up a hand and Amy and Rory nodded. They could hold their questions just a little longer.

‘My first wedding with the Doctor, in the collapsing timeline that never really happened but did, it was my first wedding. But the Doctor had married me already, long, long before that. Almost a thousand years, for him. Remember when he told you, before Demons Run, that he had once had a family, back on Gallifrey - a family he could scarcely remember?’ Two reluctant, confused nods. ‘Since you’ve last seen me, a long, long time has passed for me. Several hundred years. I’ve never been terribly good at sticking to a name, so I took on another one. The one a dear friend used because I had already told her to.

‘She called me “Patience”. There was only ever one woman on Gallifrey called Patience. The woman who married the Doctor. I couldn’t stay on Gallifrey after I returned to the living because my future was already in the past, written in the history books my grandchildren would one day learn from. Patience, the Doctor’s wife. A woman with a past shrouded in secret, who just disappeared from Gallifrey one day, without a trace. A woman her own husband can remember clearly and not at all - their life, yes, but not her face, her voice, her smile. 

‘The day the Doctor decided to steal the TARDIS, I had to leave so not to dismantle our timeline. Because I’d met him before, in his future, and he didn’t know me, so we knew I had to obscure his memory.’ A tear trailed down her cheek, pain unhidden in her eyes. ‘It was, perhaps the hardest thing I ever did. He allowed it, oh, I’d never have done it without his consent, he always knew I’d come from his future - but to take it all? All the laughs we shared, the falling in love over and over again, the children, their names, their faces - all I could leave was Susan, dear, darling Susan, so eager to run with him. It’s still there, all of it, but hidden, deep inside his - her - mind, buried only to be pulled forth again if we are in sync, for good. 

‘And oh, how I hated to do that, take away our life, our _family_ \- I would do it all over again; if I hadn’t, would have never had it in the first place. In the end, all of it was worth having had that.’

Silence followed River’s words, Amy quietly caressing her hand, deep in thought. Rory just looked at them, his mind as far away as his daughter’s as he contemplated her story, her life. 

Once, a long time ago, he had grieved that he had never once held his daughter after she was born, only ever her ganger. Later, he had grieved that he had never seen her grow up, that he had been denied the chance to be her father. Then, when he learned she had grown up as his best friend, he had wondered how the Doctor had failed them all so utterly, especially his Amy.

With Mels, he had always wondered how many more times he’d have to hold her when she raged and cried about utterly useless boyfriends and men in general. They had always joked that River was the Doctor’s wife, no matter how great a flirt she was, and it had been almost impossible to reconcile these two women as one. 

But now, having listened to her story, what she had entrusted them with - Rory realised with a strange, sudden certainty that while he had always wondered about his daughter, neither he nor Amy had ever made a real effort of getting to know her. They had accepted her presence in their lives, had accepted River was Melody was Mels, but they had never tried to find out who she was. She was River Song, warrior, archaeologist, Professor, the Doctor’s bespoke psychopath. Beyond that? He didn’t know.

One look at Amy was enough to tell him that she was thinking along the same lines. He felt ashamed all of a sudden, about how they had treated their daughter, and amazed at how she treated them. Despite their lack of interest in her over the earlier years of her life, she still trusted them, trusted them enough to tell them her story, her past. How had they ever managed to create such a marvellous not-quite-human being that she forgave them for it all? 

Because that’s what her eyes said, forgiveness. Rory had only seen an older River once and she, too, had this air about her, this aura of wisdom and certainty and calm reassurance that no human could possibly possess. The Doctor was like that, too, even if he only rarely portrayed that side of him openly. But their daughter, it seemed impossible for her to hide it away. 

Gently, he locked eyes with her. ‘When was that for you? Taking his memories?’

River shrugged in answer, nonchalantly. ‘Perhaps two decades ago? Maybe more. I lost track.’

‘What have you been up to since then? You said you couldn’t stay on Gallifrey, right?’

‘No, I couldn’t - I read it, in the history books on the TARDIS, that I disappeared. So I did - and went right back to Luna.’ She chuckled. ‘You can’t imagine how strange it was, going back to that life. It didn’t quite fit anymore, you know?’

‘It would have been stranger if it did, don’t you think?’ Amy’s look was thoughtful, but both River and Rory nodded.

‘It would have. It was odd, the empty house, working at the University again - I came back a few days after we left for the library, no time had passed for them, but for me, it was a lifetime.’

‘You came back a different person,’ Amy realised and once again got a nod from her daughter.

‘I left a woman all alone in the universe but for her absent husband, and I came back a wife, a mother - grandmother, even! It was strange, and it took a while to get used to things again. They noticed, all of them, you know? The students, the faculty - they didn’t know what was different, but they knew I had changed.’ She smiled deviously all of a sudden, her eyes sparkling. ‘They didn’t even question when I showed up with Jenny one day.’

‘Jenny? Who’s that?’ They had heard the name before, but neither Amy nor Rory knew who “Jenny” actually was. 

‘Oh, of course, you wouldn’t know. The Doctor - the face before the one you know, he managed to get himself cloned. Sort of. It’s a long story and I’ve only heard it second hand myself, but from what I gathered he ended up somewhere with a DNA copying mechanism to create soldiers. They used the Doctor’s DNA on it and the result was Jenny. He left her behind because he thought she’d died but she didn’t. Since she’s technically the Doctor’s daughter, she’s mine too.’ River shrugged, completely unfazed by the slightly freaked out looks on her parents’ faces. ‘It was a simple matter of figuring out where she’d end up and collecting her. She’s been living with me almost since I came back to Luna .’

‘So you haven’t been all alone?’ It was funny, Rory thought, that there was so much fatherly worry in his tone when his daughter had a few hundred years on him - but he was still her dad and from the look of her face, River very much appreciated his concern. 

‘No. I’ve had Jenny, and Susan popping in regularly as well.’

‘Good.’

‘Melody?’ There was something very tentative in the way Amy said her daughter’s name and all eyes focused on her. Amy bit her lip before fixing her own look on River. ‘You said you had children too. They’re our grandchildren, aren’t they, Rory? Will you tell us about them, and about your grandchildren? We’ll tell you about Anthony - he’s your brother - are you alright?’

‘Of course.’ River blinked rapidly a few times, but the smile she sent Amy was forced. ‘Please, tell me about Anthony.’

‘Well, he’s brilliant. Adorable and cute - he’s just started to say “mum” and “dad” - but he keeps throwing his food when he doesn’t want to eat. Especially the carrots.’

‘It’ll get better,’ River said softly, but there was something deeply sad in her smile. Clearly, she wasn’t ready to talk about whatever had happened to her own children, but she was more than interested in learning all about her very little brother. 

‘I’m glad you have Anthony,’ she said, her smile long returned to its usual brightness. ‘You deserved the family you always wanted.’

‘But don’t ever think we were trying to replace you,’ Amy interrupted softly. She needed to explain that again, even though River hadn’t given any indication that she thought she had been offended by the existence of her baby brother. 

‘I know, mother, I know. But I was never meant to be part of your family like that, even if you are my parents. Anthony was. I am just glad that you are happy.’

‘But we’d like you to be part of our family too.’ Rory gave his wife another quick glance. ‘Could we do...this, could we do this again and maybe bring him along so you can meet him?’

River beamed at them. ‘I would like that very much, dad.’

‘How do we, you know, set a time? Date?’

‘No need. I’ll take care of everything - just whenever you want. It’s time travel, remember? In your dreams - I can go to sleep anytime to meet you, linear even.’

‘So we just..go to sleep with that candle on and we’ll wake up here with you?’ Amy reassured herself once more and River nodded. ‘Then this is goodbye for now, I guess.’

‘For now.’ Smiling, River got up and hugged first Amy, then Rory. ‘It was wonderful to see you again. I’m looking forward to the next time. Goodbye!’

Amy blinked, but the spot where her daughter had stood just seconds ago was empty, as if she had disappeared into thin air. Shaking her head, she turned back to her husband and smiled.

‘I’m glad she’s alright.’

‘She did well,’ Rory agreed. ‘I don’t think we ever gave her all the credit she deserved, but we get a chance to do it now.’

‘Yeah, you’re right about that. Better not waste it.’

‘Nope. So...Amy?’

‘Yeah?’

‘How do we get out of here?’

Amy laughed. ‘How do you wake up from a dream?’ Without a warning, she pinched his arm - and he reached over to punch her arm for it, he found himself punching a pillow instead. Only a second later, in the armchair across from him, did Amy wake up with a gasp, rubbing her arm before turning to grin at him.

‘See, stupid face? We’ve still got it.’

And with that, they went upstairs to retrieve their son and their great-granddaughter, feeling eerily relieved by the knowledge that even though they had never voiced them, their daughter had defied all their worries and had managed to be the one thing they had wanted for her: Happy. 


	10. Happy, Lucky, Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where everyone is happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it. We're at the end. I just want to thank everyone who reviewed and left kudos - every single one made me smile, thank you for your support. I also need to, again, thank my two wonderful beta readers, without I would probably never have dared to upload this story.   
> Now, Happy Holidays everyone, and I hope you'll enjoy this last chapter :)

Usually, when the mail slot was rattling, no one cared all too much about it. They could pick up the letters later, after all. But it was Sunday afternoon and everyone knew: There was no post on Sundays. So whatever had just arrived, it couldn’t be a letter.

Only, it was. Gingerly, Luke picked it up - and froze. All colour had drained from his face as he stared at the name, the cursive impossibly familiar and impossible to be on a letter. 

_ ‘Luke Smith’  _ it said, in his mother’s writing. He’d have recognised it anywhere, anytime. It had to be a trap, a fraud - but Luke couldn’t help it, if there was even the slightest chance that this letter was from his mother, he didn’t care. He opened it carefully, afraid to accidentally break the content, but when he pulled out the paper - nice and elegant, the style his mum had always used - it was perfectly unharmed. 

It had been a long time since he had been so afraid of something, yet he couldn’t stop himself as he unfolded the paper.

_ ‘Dear Luke _ ,’ it said in the beginning. His mum’s writing, yesterday’s date next to it. Impossible, but…

‘ _ Dear Luke, _

_ I couldn’t help myself. I had to write to you. I miss you. And I know that you got on with your life, that you are happy with Sanjay and the kids - you made me a grandmother! - but I hope that somewhere, you miss me too, just a little bit. _

_ Goodness, I’m terribly selfish, am I? Hoping you miss me, when I should be happy you moved on and have a wonderful life. Do you even know how proud I am? You, Luke Smith, are simply wonderful. _

_ I know what you’re thinking right now - I raised you, after all. You’re thinking: “This can’t be right, mum’s been dead for a decade - and the dead don’t send letters.” And the dead don’t. The thing is, Luke, I’m not dead. I know you’re going to be angry now, how could you not? But, you see, I had to die. Because...I can’t, not really. Not for a long time, at least. It's the time travel, it messed up my DNA and now I’m not aging like a normal human anymore. I’ve been wearing a perception filter to at least make it look like I aged. Who knows what the people would have been thinking otherwise - not that it always worked, mind you, I think some people could see through it, at least partially. The point, Luke, is that I had to leave, and staying on earth, it would have hurt too much. I’ve already said I’m selfish, haven’t I? So I left and made it look like I died. _

_ You remember the Doctor, don’t you? Her planet was destroyed - again, it’s a long story - but this time, some people survived and together with a few other people, I helped them rebuild their society on New Gallifrey. It’s been a decade now, we’re sort of linear, and there’s going to be a big anniversary celebration next week. I asked Romana and she said she would be delighted to finally meet you, if you would like to attend. Not just you, of course, Sanjay and George and Jane as well - I would love to meet my grandkids. _

_ Of course, I understand if you are unwilling to attend or if it is too short notice, but if you would like to come, someone will be by to pick you up next Sunday at 9.30am. I’d love to see you. I miss you. _

_ Love and kisses to you all, _

_ Mum _

_ Sarah Jane Smith’ _

It almost physically hurt that she had crossed out the ‘mum’, doubting herself so much when it came to her capability as a mother, that Luke couldn’t help burst into tears. There was no doubt in his mind that this letter was indeed from his mum and there was no way in the universe that he was not going to go see her next week. 

Crying over a piece of paper was how Sanjay and the children found him when they returned half an hour later and if was, indeed, quickly established that they would all go to New Gallifrey the following Sunday.

The week couldn't pass fast enough and it was an almost impossible task to keep Jane and George from telling anyone about their pending off-earth-trip. Then, on Sunday morning, the doorbell rang and Jane rushed forth, pulling it open.

‘Hiya,’ the woman outside grinned and held out her hand for Jane to shake. ‘Am I right to assume you’re Jane Smith, young lady?’ Jane nodded ferociously and behind her, Luke smiled. He wasn’t quite as good at it as his mum, but he was fairly certain he knew who the woman was. She winked at him, then turned her attention back to his daughter. ‘Lovely meeting you, Janey. I’m the Doctor.’

And with that, everyone was ushered into the TARDIS, parked - neatly - just at the end of their driveway. George, Jane and Sanjay all marvelled at the bigger on the inside phone box and Luke admired the new design, but the Doctor could sense that his heart and mind were elsewhere. And couldn’t she understand him?   
  


She had thought for so long that not only her wife but all her people were dead, only to then learn that they weren’t, that they were still out there, alive and happy. The feeling of absolute elation was unforgettable - and she hadn’t even loved most of them. When she got her family - what was left of it - back, there was nothing that compared to it. So if there was anyone who could understand how Luke felt right now, it was the Doctor.

The TARDIS landed surprisingly gentle and the Doctor strode towards the door.

‘Come on, gang,’ she grinned and pushed open the doors. Bright light came flooding in and the chatter of people outside was impossible to ignore. Jane and George, hand in hand, rushed past the Doctor, eager to see the new world waiting for them, Sanjay hot on their heels, trying to reign them in somehow, but Luke suddenly felt frozen.

The Doctor, unusually perceptive, gave him a quick glance before peaking outside and waving at someone. Seconds later, she slipped outside, leaving Luke alone. He turned his back to the door, still trying to force himself to follow his husband and children outside, get it over with. But he was scared of what he would see, suddenly afraid that it had been a hoax and -

Footsteps behind him made him whirl back around, and once more, he froze. Right there, right in front of him, stood his mum. Alive, breathing - smiling at him through tears, but oh so alive. He didn’t know how but suddenly he was in her arms again, holding on to her like he had been back when she had just gotten him back from the Slitheen, and they were sinking down on the floor, clinging to each other as if they never wanted to let go again.

‘Oh Luke,’ Sarah Jane whispered, brushing down his hair, cradling him close, ‘I am so sorry I left you, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you I had to go but I couldn’t, so I thought it’d be easier if you all thought I’d died, so you could move on and not hope I’d return some day, because, because I know how  _ hard  _ that is and I couldn’t come back, but Luke, oh, I’ve missed you  _ so much  _ and -’

‘It’s alright, mum,’ he interrupted, still feeling like a child instead of a grown man in his mother’s arms. Right then, he couldn’t have cared less. He had his mum back, after a decade of missing her, and the how’s and why’s - they could all wait. All that mattered that his mum wasn’t dead but alive and that she was right there, holding him. ‘We can talk about that later.’

‘Alright,’ she said with a teary smile and pulled back a little as to properly look at him. ‘Oh, you’re all grown up now. You don’t need your old mum anymore, you’ve got a family of your own now -’

‘I’ll always need you, mum.’ She swallowed and hung her head but he just arranged himself on the steps next to her so he could rest his head on her shoulders. It was an awkward position, now that he was so much taller than her, but it didn’t really matter. ‘And I am a bit mad at you, but...I know you, mum. You wouldn’t have just, you know, disappeared without good reason. So we talk about that later, yeah, and just be happy now? Because -’ he stopped again and looked up at her ‘- I’m so, so happy to have you back.’

‘I’m happy to have you back too, Luke. I’ve missed you.’

‘I missed you more.’ Perhaps she should have given him some retort, but she couldn’t think of anything and instead just rested her head on his. Sarah Jane had missed her son ever since she had left earth, but until she had seen him again, she hadn’t realised just how much. It felt like time stood still while they just sat there, soaking in each other’s presence. 

Eventually, it was Luke who pulled back, mostly because his neck was getting stiff from the strange angle, and he finally took a moment to look his mother up and down.

‘You’re not wearing a perception filter now, are you?’ He wanted to know and she shook her head.

‘It’s not necessary here. Not aging is perfectly normal.’ She shrugged and Luke gave a slow nod.

‘I guess I see why you thought staying on earth would be complicated.’ And really, he did. It stung, yes, that she hadn’t told him about her plans, but even there he could see her reasoning. Ten years ago, he might not have, but now that he was a parent himself, he understood where she had come from. Years ago, she had told him how she had spent years and years, waiting for the Doctor to return and how that had almost ruined her. So how could he blame her for wanting to keep that pain from him, make sure he didn’t have to go through the same torture of waiting for her to come back one day? 

Because he also understood now, seeing her again, that she couldn’t have stayed on earth much longer without raising suspicion. Even a perception filter could only do so much and the Sarah Jane now before him, she didn’t look a day older than the Sarah Jane who had, years ago, been sitting in her garden with Maria and christened him Luke. When she had ‘died’, she had looked older than that - not  _ old,  _ but her auburn hair had been white and there had been decidedly more wrinkles marking her face. 

‘Yes, well,’ Sarah Jane said with a sad smile, ‘I don’t suppose they would have stopped pestering me about my surgeons if I’d stayed.’

Despite himself, Luke had to grin. ‘Yeah, they might have ended up thinking  _ you  _ were an alien.’

‘Oh, cheek!’ She laughed and let Luke pull her to her feet. Arms around each other, they finally made their way outside. 

  
  


‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sarah this happy,’ Romana mused as she watched the reunion from afar. Next to her, River nodded slowly.

‘It’s been a long time, yes,’ she agreed. And really, it was heartwarming to see the reunion, Sarah Jane twirling around her little namesake granddaughter and dropping kisses on her grandson’s head, only to then pull both her son and son-in-law into hugs, all the while beaming and laughing, lighter than she had ever since she left earth.

‘Well,’ the Doctor grinned, gently nudging her wife as she joined them, ‘I’d say we’ve done a great job here, haven’t we?’

‘We all have.’ Romana nodded, then sighed. ‘I suppose it’s time for the speech. Can I leave you to make sure Sarah’s good to come on stage later?’

‘Of course, you know us, she’ll be right where she’s supposed to be - what?’

‘I was talking to your wife, Doctor.’

‘What, why - oi! You two are really rude, you know that?’ The Doctor’s glare went back and forth between River and Romana, who both had to bite back a laugh.

‘Well, Doctor, we all know that if I asked you to be on time, you end up three hundred years off, five galaxies over.’ Romana grinned and winked at River. ‘The wife, on the other hand, usually makes it on time.’

‘I’ll make sure she’s there,’ River interrupted, turning the conversation back to the original matter. She gave Romana a nod. ‘You should go, unless  _ you _ want to be the one who’s too late.’

‘Oh, Gallifrey forbid that happens, I’m off - see you later, and  _ be on time!’ _ With that, Romana disappeared towards the other side of the square where the stage was situated.

Now alone, the Doctor smiled and threw an arm around River. ‘We really did well, didn’t we? Look at all we’ve done here!’

‘None of this would have been possible on Gallifrey,’ River agreed softly. ‘There was so much value in tradition, so much stigma over what could and couldn't be done - millenia of it and look, it took barely a decade to get people on the right path.’

‘I suppose we had the right people for it,’ the Doctor couldn’t help but point out, ‘the kind of people who actually wanted change and trusted Romana enough to come with her.’

‘I can’t argue with that.’

‘And the war probably had something to do with it too.’ At that, River shuddered slightly. It was almost ironic, she thought, how losing Gallifrey to the Master’s destruction was a safe topic to talk about but the war, finished long before that, was still a matter no one dared to touch. Then again, the majority of the refugees had actually been on Gallifrey for the latter, while they had been hiding in their TARDISes in orbit for the first.

‘ _ Attention, please, everyone _ ,’ sounded the sudden announcement over the square. Everyone who had come to the Capital for the festivities from out of town went to find their seat in the long lines of comfortable chairs placed across the square. In the elegant houses around, windows were opened and people made themselves comfortable on their balconies so they could watch and listen. The film crews bustled here and there, trying to find the very best angle and make last minute adjustments.

‘You’re family, so you’ve got seats right in the front,’ Sarah was just explaining to Luke and Sanjay as she led them towards River and the Doctor. ‘This part is going to be a bit stiff - that’s Gallifreyans for you, even after everything - but you’re invited to come along afterwards and join the private party the Doctor planned.’ She threw her a piercing glance. ‘I really hope there won’t be any bouncing castles.’

‘But Saaarah -’

‘Why don’t you want bouncing castles, grandma? Bouncing castles are cool!’ George protested and Jane nodded ferociously. 

‘For you perhaps - but not so much for grown-ups.’

‘ _ Please find your seats, the program will begin in two minutes.’ _

Realising they had to hurry, they all made their way to the front. ‘There you are, I thought I’d have to send a search party for you,’ Susan hissed in greeting before giving Luke and Sanjay a tight smile. ‘Sorry about that. It’s good to finally meet you. Susan, granddaughter of those two.’ She nodded at River and the Doctor, then pointed at the empty seats that actually bore their names. 

‘People of Gallifrey. Honoured guests from offworld.’ Romana’s voice was clear and calm as she stepped onto the podium on stage. Her skirt suit was hidden under the old-fashioned, traditional gallifreyan dress robes that she still hadn’t been able to fully abolish. Silence fell over the square as everyone hushed to listen. She smiled. ‘My dear people. This past decade has been so very challenging for us all. We all know, for us, ten years is barely more than a blink, yet for many of our friends, it is a much longer time. Yet look -’ she elegantly waved her hand at the buildings around them ‘- look what we have been able to do in such a short time. 

‘It still feels like yesterday that our beloved planet was destroyed. And yet we managed to prevail and move on. We found a new home, made it our home. But in doing so, we’ve changed.

‘Change, as we all know, is a part of life. For us as Gallifreyans, that is even more true than it is for other species. But the change we all went through, it was not regeneration. It was a change we all went through together, as a society. Perhaps we were not affected so much as individuals, but as a society, we did change. For the better, as I have been told repeatedly,’ she added with a small smile towards the front row of the audience. ‘We are not the same people who left Gallifrey, preparing for the worst. But if we had been on our own, we would have never made it this far.

‘Therefore, we are celebrating today - ten years since we started settling down on New Gallifrey, ten years since we decided to make this our home, ten years in which we had some true friends by our side, assisting us every step of the way. Hereby, I will officially thank them.’

One by one, she called an assortment of people onto the stage, handing them small medals and giving out honorary titles. There was the ambassador of Braxos, a planet just one solar system across that had quickly been established as one of the big trading partners, then the emissary of Peritularie, one of the moons of planet sharing their solar system, the consul of Trividrelle in the neighbouring galaxy that had turned out very helpful as yet another trading partner, and so on and so on.

Finally, after what felt like hours - George had fallen asleep draped across his farthers’ laps - Romana paused.

‘There are three more people I need to thank. Three people who have done more than anyone for us. First, I would like to thank the Professor, who you all know as River Song, or perhaps Patience.’ Sighing deeply, River made her way to stand next to Romana, who handed her a medal herself, along with another small package. ‘It’s a surprise,’ she whispered before turning back to the people. 

‘I am honoured to call the Professor a dear friend now, someone I would trust with my life. But what I have never told anyone before is how I met her. Because you see, she gave me a message. A warning. Without Professor Song, not one of us would be here today.’ Romana paused, let her gaze sweep over the crowd. ‘She was the one who warned me about the Master’s plan of our destruction. She trusted me with this big secret so I could prepare you, and you believed. For her protection of the people of Gallifrey, I shall reward her with our highest honour.’ 

The people cheered and Romana smiled as she turned to River and pressed a kiss onto her forehead. It was no more than a symbol these days, the important part would take place later on, when they were off camera. For now, River just smiled at the crowd, gave a small bow and made her way back to her seat. Romana waited until the cheers had fallen silent again before she continued.

‘The next person I want to thank too has become a dear friend over the last years. Many of you have read of her in books as the first ambassador of earth, the person to seek out if you ever stranded there in her time. When I first met her, I did not know that she would one day become such an important staple for my own people. Sarah Jane Smith, please come join me.’ She held out her hand and Sarah Jane quickly made her way up, standing in the same spot River had been standing in moments ago. She smiled and gave a small wave. 

‘Ms Smith has been fundamental for so many important decisions made over the years. Without her aid, we would have never found this planet, would perhaps still be adrift in the vortex, looking for a new place to settle. And that was only the first time of many that she helped us, and she has done so since in whatever way she can. Therefore,’ she turned to hand Sarah her medal and a package similar to River’s, ‘she will from now on be Lady Sarah Jane, a honorary Gallifreyan of the highest order for as long as she lives or choses too.’ 

The implications of that were clear, needn’t be said aloud. And most of it had been dealt with already anyway, the TARDIS neatly parked in her hallway and the document that she was capable of flying on her own. ‘Your DNA is already scrambled,’ River had reasoned when the Doctor had been hesitant, ‘it won’t hurt you if we change it just a little more to give you some telepathic ability.’ Persuading the Doctor had proven to be more complicated than the actual process, Sarah thought, and she had to admit she was quite happy about it. Telepathic ability meant being able to fly a TARDIS on her own, which meant being able to visit Luke whenever she wanted.

‘Lady Sarah, our dear friend!’ Romana announced once more and Sarah Jane gave another wave before rushing back to her seat and out of the spotlight. Only one person left. Romana swallowed.

‘The last person I want to thank,’ she began, ‘has been a dear friend of mine ever since my first regeneration. She has been called a renegade and has been treated with the utmost disrespect by previous high councils and Presidents of Gallifrey, despite doing whatever it takes to protect Gallifrey.

‘You all know the Doctor. Every child knows the Doctor, and many of you still scorn her for her reputation of old. But know that without the Doctor, none of you would exist. She was the  _ first  _ Time Lord. Our ancestors saw fit to experiment on her and use her to create our species. I have apologised to the Doctor in private many times and I want you to know what she told me: “Romana”, she said, “I don’t blame you. Those who did that to me - they’re long gone. Dead.  _ You  _ lot didn’t do a thing. Your ancestors did, and then send me to the future so I’d never find out. I did, but I still don’t blame you.”

‘The first time she told me that, I dared not believe her. But now I do. Because I have realised: In ten short years, our society has changed more than it has in several hundred on Gallifrey. We used to shut ourselves off and refused to partake in the universe. The Doctor has never conformed to that, went travelling instead. Please, Doctor, come up here?’ Rolling her eyes, she did. ‘I myself used to travel with the Doctor, sightseeing and on occasion saving the universe. But it took me a very long time to realise that travel does not do any good if you take nothing from it.

‘Doctor, you showed me that the universe is a wonderful place and that there is just as much good as there is bad. It took some time, but I think the most important thing I ever learned from you is kindness. To forgive wrongs and give another chance, to move on and be open minded to every creature you meet. You also told me you wanted no awards, no medals, nothing. So I give you the one thing you cannot decline: Thank you, Doctor, for everything you ever did for the universe.’

Cheers erupted, not only on the square but all over the planet where people were watching the life-broadcast of the festivities. Louder and longer than ever did the people cheer and the Doctor felt it very unfortunate that she was in a body that blushed easily. Eventually, when the cheers wouldn’t stop, however, she turned to Romana and whispered something in her ear. When Romana nodded, she stepped forwards and instantly, the crowd went silent.

‘Hello everyone,’ she said, slowly, clearing her throat. ‘Blimey, I didn’t actually plan on saying anything today. But I guess needs must, right? Well, just wing it, then. 

‘Right. Today’s about celebrating good things, isn’t it? But you shouldn’t forget that just because you’re happy and fine and celebrating now, there’s still bad stuff in the universe. The Master’s still out there, though he’s probably got no idea you’re here, so you should be safe on that front. Then there’s the Daleks, Cyberman, Weeping Angels - none of them are gone. They’re still out there, roaming the universe.

‘When I first ran from Gallifrey, I had no idea what I’d find out there. But then I was running and I kept running and running, on and on. Never knew what I was running towards, though. Just what I was running from.

‘I hated Gallifrey. I really did. Too many rules, too many regulations, too little excitement, too little love. I was frustrated with the people and the politics, so I turned my back and ran. I tried not to look back, but that was hard. I picked up travelling companions and finally I found people who understood, like-minded people who wanted to travel like me and quickly became dear, dear friends. They showed me that a society didn’t have to be like the one on Gallifrey, that there were other, better ways of doing things.   
  


‘I always thought that Gallifrey would never change. But I was wrong. You did change. You were forced to start over again but instead of doing things the old way, slip into familiar patterns, you found new ways of doing things. You chose wisdom and love over power and corruption, you established a new system and have built a society on a planet that a few years ago was nothing but barren wasteland.

‘You know, I never thought I’d ever, ever say this, but...Gallifrey, I am very proud of you.’

The speech, no matter whether improvised or not, would appear word for word in many a history book for centuries. 

And for once, what the Doctor had told the people of Gallifrey, would not be forgotten or waved off as nonsense. For once, they remembered and tried to continue ‘making the Doctor proud’, as the saying would later become. 

The Doctor herself? She just laughed at that, shook her head and jumped back into her TARDIS to save the universe again. Sometimes, she would take River with her, sometimes Jenny or Susan or Sarah Jane, or Benjamin and her grandchildren. Sometimes, she would go off alone and find a new friend along the way, to eventually bring home and meet ‘the family’. She knew, now, what she had been running towards for all those years.

It was what they had all finally found, even if they hadn’t even known they were looking for it.

River. Romana. Susan. Sarah Jane. The Doctor.

It had taken a long, long time but they had finally found it.

Friends. 

Family. 

Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading till the end!

**Author's Note:**

> There's a tin with biscuits, if anyone would like to leave a comment? Or kudos, of course - thank you for reading!


End file.
